Cause And Effect Of Distracted Driving

Behind the wheel, there are many different distractions the driver can face. An online article by LiveScience.com showed an experiment done by the University of Houston and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in which they put different distraction in different categories. The three categories I read about were Cognitive, Emotional, and Sensorimotor distractions. In the experiment, they asked the participant thought provoking questions, emotion provoking questions, and made them text while driving. They then tested stress levels and all three caused a noticeable amount of stress. This source shows a few different kinds of distractions that anyone can face behind the wheel giving anyone who reads it awareness of these

Most teens, and even adults, use their cellphones while they drive. They think a quick text or call won’t hurt while they are at a red light. They call it multitasking, and think that since they have a hand on the wheel they are fine. In the articles “How The Brain Reacts” by Marcel Just and Tim Keller, and “The Science Behind Distracted Driving” by KUTV, Austin they describe how the mind is working in the cellphone situation.

Many people think that talking on the phone with someone while driving does no harm because they are still looking at the road. However, “Distracted driving is

Distracted driving is the number one leading cause to accidents. Whether it be texting, calling, conversing, eating, grooming or reading. The National Safety Council, NSC, says that one in four car accidents are because of cell phones. Initial data from the National Safety Council estimates that as many as 40,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2016. That marks a six percent increase over 2015 and a fourteen percent increase over 2014. That is the most dramatic two year escalation in the past fifty three years.

Distracted driving affects all drivers from time to time and can come off with stiff consequences . Any activity that diverts attention from driving could put you and someone else in danger .Being distracted while driving , and the issues behind it could ruin someone's life.

Based on what the author stated in the introduction of Distracted Driver, “Driving a motor vehicle is serious business and you need to be well-rested and attentive in order to be a safe driver.”

Electronic devices and cell phones are the most easily recognized ways to become distracted while driving. But the federal government looks at anything that can detract from your visual, manual and cognitive attention, and includes some additional factors.

I find that incoming calls and texts commonly distract me, also when friends or family are in the car, changing my music or turning it up too loud and also eating and drinking. While driving I most likely am distracted by my music, most of the time I get distracted by the song playing and have the urge to change it to something more pleasing to me. This means finding my phone if it not already in my lap or attached to the dock I have set up, unlocking my phone, going to my music playlist and changing it as many times as I can until something I like comes on. If I am not being distracted by the music, reaching for something to eat or drink most likely distracts me. I find myself packing a lot of snacks for my car rides, as a get hungry and then thirsty. I even sometimes find myself distracted with my surroundings such as the people in the car next to me or the people just walking on the street or doing whatever they might be doing.

Distracted driving doesn’t just impact you, it impacts everyone around you. When you drive distracted you are hurting others. You are putting their lives in danger, forcing them to watch you and not everyone else. According to the driver handbook, distracted driving causes 10% of deaths on highways, and 9% of car crashes on the highways. It is in the top five of leading causes. When you drive distracted, not only are you putting people at risk of death, you are putting yourself at risk of death. It is not worth the risk to drive distracted, so don’t do it.

“A distracted driver may fail to see up to 50% of the available information in the driving environment. You may look but not actually “see” what is happening. Focus of the driver is not on the road or traffic and it becomes difficult to handle phone and vehicle at one time. Cell phones during driving also reduce the mental capacity of drivers as they fail to concentrate on minor or major activities happening around them. Cell phones distract drivers' attention resulting in comparatively slow response to traffic signals and other related traffic events. Studies have shown the fact that breaking reaction time is also slower while talking on a cell phone during driving. The perception, vision, general awareness, and concentration of the driver are impacted while communicating on a cell phone during driving. Especially during bad weather or driving on slippery roads, drivers engaging in conversation pay less attention to these areas increasing risks of fatal accidents.

Virtually anyone who has a driver’s license has been introduced to the idea that distracted driving causes accidents. However, the consequences of distracted driving are far more than just predictable and often taken lightly. Predictable events can be avoided. Since these are predictable events they are preventable. The choices that drivers make affect more people than they may realize, thus making them responsible for the consequences that result from those choices. On a daily basis more than 15 American deaths and another 1,200 injuries are attributed to drivers that are distracted while driving on the very roads most of us use every day (Harvard Men’s Health Watch, page 7). Distractions can be

Distracted driving is one of the fastest growing problems in the United States.   It is starting to be considered as serious as drunk driving based on the dangerous outcomes.  According to the Department of Transportation (2012), “distracted driving was a cause of roughly 450,000 accident-related injuries and nearly 5,500 fatalities in 2009 alone” (para. 1). Drivers who allow themselves to become distracted while driving are not only endangering themselves, but other innocent bystanders.

So as long as I’ve been driving I’ve always recalled my mother’s voice saying, “Don’t drink and drive. Sleep at a friend’s house or pay for a taxi. Don’t Do It echoing in the back of my head.” So imagine my surprise when I found out that “driver distraction is actually more important now than critical crash factors such as fatigue, drug ingestion and alcohol intoxication”. According to John Lee, author of Driver Distraction and Inattention: Advances in Research and Countermeasures, “Road vehicle crashes are predicted to become the third largest cause of death and injury globally by 2020”.

Some drivers believe that as long as you keep your eyes on the road, it is fine to answer and make phone calls while driving. This point is not valid, because distraction can be anything averting concentration, not just looking away from the path of travel (Svenson and Patten 182). Drivers must become more aware of this problem, especially in our advancing technological age.

o The most common distractions and causes of Driver Distraction: day dreaming 62%, phone distractions 12%, paying more attention to people or objects outside the vehicle 7%, passengers in the car 5%