DISTRACTED DI N TRH E UINVI T E DI SNTATGE S 2,841
people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2018.
At 55 miles per hour, sending or reading a text is like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. Hands on the wheel. Eyes on the road.
Number of Distracted Drivers Involved in Fatal Crashes By Age Group, 2018
Distracted driving is any activity that takes the driver’s attention away from driving.
800 700 600
Distracted driving includes cell phone use and other activities such as eating, talking to other passengers, adjusting radio or climate controls.
500 400 300 200 100 0
15-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70+
Source: Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2018.
The
3
Main Types of Distracted Driving
Visual
Manual
Cognitive
Get the Facts Many states have taken steps to help prevent distracted driving. Examples include: • banning texting while driving • banning hand-held cell phone use while driving • requiring passenger limits for young drivers
Taking your eyes off the road
Taking your hands off the wheel
Taking your mind off driving
Drivers fail to realize that “multitasking” is actually their brain switching back and forth between tasks rapidly. You cannot focus on driving and another task at the same time, even if it’s just a glance.
• using high-visibility enforcement of these laws However, research on the effectiveness of cell phone and texting laws is mixed.
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When you text while driving, the time that you spend with your eyes off the road increases by about 400%. It is already dangerous enough to be distracted by NATURE while driving. So why make things four times as bad by texting?
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The chances of a crash because of any reason is increased by 23 times when you are texting. Even if the crash is another driver’s fault, you will probably have been able to avoid it if you had been looking at the road instead of the phone.
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When you compare this to the 2.8 times more risk that dialing a number on a phone imparts, you know that you are playing with fire.
For more information, visit us at www.navalsafetycenter.mil Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control