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Blink. Blink again. In one to two seconds, life as you know it could be over. One “blink” is all it takes to be distracted from driving. One second between life and death. Maybe yours. Maybe someone else’s. Maybe both. Your cellphone is ringing and you “need” to answer it. You’re hungry and need to eat breakfast. You forgot to shave and think it’s OK to do so on your way to work. These are all situations many find themselves in while driving. Is any of it really worth the risk? While your first reaction may be to say no, statistics say otherwise. Studies suggest that distraction from cellphone use while driving (handheld or hands free) extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of 0.08 percent, yet millions of people still drive distracted each day. In fact, distracted driving is responsible for more than 5,000 deaths and close to 450,000 accidents in the United States every year. And that number is trending upward. What’s more, it’s no coincidence that boosting numbers are in sync with the rapid rate with which technology is advancing. After all, there isn’t much you can’t do with a cellphone today.
Instant Access
Not Just a Cellphone Problem
We are now in an age in which “instant updates” are the norm. Social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, generate tens of thousands of updates per second. The need for instantaneous information is only exacerbated when you couple it with the continued rise of text messaging. To that end, in June 2011 alone, more than 196 billion text messages were sent or received in the United States, up nearly 50 percent from the same period two years earlier, according to CTIA, the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry. And consider this: In 2009, 16 percent of fatal crashes involved reports of distracted driving, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). While numbers have not yet been released for 2011, the chances of a higher fatality rate seem likely. In fact, a 2011 Virginia Tech study found that a driver is 23 times more likely to crash if he/she is texting while driving. Not an uplifting stat to consider when you think about the fact that there are an estimated 210 million drivers in the United States alone.
Given these numbers, it may seem like cellphones and texting are the only offenders in the war over distracted driving, but it simply isn’t true. According to endDD.org, a nonprofit organization founded by Philadelphiabased Joel Feldman after his daughter was killed as a pedestrian by a distracted driver (see sidebar), only 18 percent of distracted driving fatalities occur because of cellphone use. So what makes up the other 82 percent? Well, just about everything else: eating and drinking; talking to passengers; grooming; reading; using a nav system; and adjusting a radio and/ or iPod, just to name a few. “While cellphones and texting are, of course, extremely dangerous and should never be used while driving, most people don’t realize that any time you take your eyes off the road—even for one second—you are distracted,” says Feldman. “It can happen to any of us. In an instant, your life can change.” Even with state laws that ban cellphone use (note: no state bans cellphone use for all drivers, but many prohibit all use by certain drivers), distracted driving still runs rampant. “You see it every day. Just recently, I watched someone eat a yogurt and steer their SUV with their knees,” @THESAFETYREPORT / THESAFETYREPORT.COM / 33