Distracted Driving Facts

Driver distractions or inattentive driving play a part in one out of every four motor vehicle crashes. That’s more than 1.5 million collisions a year – more than 4,300 crashes each day!

A report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that inattention caused 68% of rear-end crashes.

When a driver’s eyes were off the forward roadway for greater than 2 seconds, the odds of a crash or near-crash occurring were nearly double those when the driver was paying attention to the forward roadway. (http://www.aaafoundation.org/pdf/RiskyDrivingReport.pdf)

Look here for more facts – http://www.aaafoundation.org/pdf/distraction.pdf

Talking or Texting while driving

Using a cell phone while driving increases your chance of getting into a crash by 400%. When dialing a phone number or engaging in intense conversation, you’re not watching the road like you should. A “hands-free” apparatus is helpful, but they can’t prevent you from becoming involved in a conversation and losing concentration. Your best defense is to pull off the road and stop in a safe place before using your phone.

Teens and Defensive Driving

The majority of fatalities in teen crashes are people other than the teen driver. Over the 10 years from 1998 through 2007, there were 24,655 drivers ages 15 through 17 involved in fatal crashes – 36.9% of fatalities were the teen driver, while 31.4% were passengers, 24.4% were in other vehicle, 7.0% were non-motorists (more charts and facts here – http://www.aaanewsroom.net/Assets/Files/2009227951380.09AAA_TeenCrashes_Lores.pdf)

Arguing with passengers

Don’t drive when angry or upset. Emotions can interfere with safe driving. Wait until you have cooled down or resolved problems to drive.

Avoiding Driver Fatigue

Each year, falling asleep at the wheel is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 40,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities nationwide. Drowsy driving most often occurs during late night/early morning or late afternoon, usually on a high-speed road, and most often the driver is alone in the vehicle. The crash usually involves a single vehicle leaving the roadway.

Stay focused on the road. Don’t drive if you are tired. Share the driving responsibilities on long trips.

Avoiding Driver Fatigue

Each year, falling asleep at the wheel is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 40,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities nationwide. Drowsy driving most often occurs during late night/early morning or late afternoon, usually on a high-speed road, and most often the driver is alone in the vehicle. The crash usually involves a single vehicle leaving the roadway.

Stay focused on the road. Don’t drive if you are tired. Share the driving responsibilities on long trips.

What to do if you are involved in a crash

Each year, falling asleep at the wheel is responsible for at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 40,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities nationwide. Drowsy driving most often occurs during late night/early morning or late afternoon, usually on a high-speed road, and most often the driver is alone in the vehicle. The crash usually involves a single vehicle leaving the roadway.

Stay focused on the road. Don’t drive if you are tired. Share the driving responsibilities on long trips.

What to do if you are involved in a crash

Traffic collisions are at an all time high with around 20 million each year. At the same time, however, drivers are grossly uneducated regarding collision procedures.

Prevention is best, but if you are in an accident move safely to shoulder of the road and call *347 for assistance.

Road Rangers is a free service, operating 24-hours a day/seven days a week to assist stranded motorists.

Defensive Driving Tips

The following are some of the basic concepts of defensive driving:

- Slow down, especially during inclement weather conditions or at night.

- Do not follow too closely.

- Concentrate on your driving at all times.

- Check your mirrors frequently

- Assume that drivers will run through stop signs or red lights at intersections and be prepared to react

- Keep a watchful eye on pedestrians and pets along the roadside.

Using Turn Signals

The NHTSA and the insurance industry have reported that unintended lane change crashes have been the direct cause of 23,000 annual fatalities on U.S. roadways. When drivers signal before making a lane change they give others on the road an extra split second of reaction time to adjust their driving. An extra split second is all that is needed to avoid the swerve that very frequently causes crashes and road run-offs. (http://signalamerica.org/index.html)

Yielding & Merging

Failing to yield the right of way is a very frequent cause of older driver crashes. Always yield to pedestrians in or near crosswalks, even if there are no markings on the street. You must also yield to traffic already using the intersection. A driver turning left must yield to a driver going straight or turning right.

Merging is the hardest part about freeway driving, especially when traffic is heavy. Observe the posted speed on the ramp. As you approach the merge lane, start to match your speed to that of the traffic already on the expressway. At the same time check for a gap in traffic and accelerate to merge into it. If the traffic is very heavy, do not come to a stop. Slow down partway down the ramp and then accelerate as you merge into the lane. Another common mistake drivers make is not paying enough attention to any cars in front of them during the merge. You never know what the cars in front of you might do. Give yourself plenty of room so that if the car in front of you suddenly stops, you have time to react accordingly.

*All facts from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (http://www.aaafoundation.org), or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/)

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Driving Under the Influence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.