Distracted Driving Around Town - What Are You Thinking?

Distracted Driving

According to a new study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), drivers today are distracted more than 50% of the time when they are driving. The VTTI study found that almost 70% of crashes analyzed involved a distracted driver. The United States, prior to the early 2000s, had less traffic fatalities per mile traveled than a vast majority of high-income nations. We are now 17th out of 29, behind countries like the UK, Canada, the Philippines and Brunei. Data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2015 shows 3,477 people were killed and 391,000 were injured due to distracted driving. Why? What has changed?

Cell Phones and Other Distractions

VTTI gathered data from more than 3,500 drivers. The drivers allowed the scientists to mount cameras, sensors, and radar in their cars. They tracked the drivers everywhere and observed what happened before crashes. What they found was that dialing a number, texting, and chatting multiplied the chance for an accident several fold. While people think cell phone use presents a problem by texting and dialing, it is important to know that just the act of talking on the phone caused a noticeable increase in the occurrence of an accident. The study also found that being distracted by conversations, multi-tasking, or driving when overly emotional cause significant increases in accidents.

Where is Your Mind?

Distractions while driving, however, involve having your mind someplace else other than concentrating on operating a several thousand pound automobile hurtling down the road. Beyond being locked into a device or a conversation, many people are also locked into their own bubble. The interior of their vehicle, their comfort, and their thoughts. Their mind isn’t OUTSIDE the car, paying attention to other traffic and keeping up a constant surveillance for dangerous drivers, people stepping into the street, emergency vehicles, the bus stopping ahead. Their mind is stuck in their car, listening to music, thinking about whatever – whether they are thumbing their phones or not!