How to Handle Common Driving Distractions

Driving safely requires the complete attention of your body and mind. Yet, millions of drivers eat, drink, operate their mobile phones, apply makeup, fix their hair, or fiddle with secondary car controls while driving, exposing their passengers, themselves, and other road users to potentially fatal collisions.

Distracted driving continually ranks among the biggest causes of fatal car crashes globally. Despite the alarming statistics, many cases involving distracted driving often go unreported, making it exceptionally difficult for road use administration authorities to connect distracted driving behavior to collisions.

Read on to understand what distracted driving entails, learn the types and examples of distracted driving, and discover how to alleviate this deadly road menace.

What is Distracted Driving?

Distracted driving is any activity that diverts a driver’s attention from the primary task of safe driving, impairing their ability to focus on the road while behind the wheel.

Types of Distracted Driving

Distracted driving takes any of these four forms:

1. Visual Distractions

These occur when something grasps the driver’s attention, causing them to take their eyes off the road.

2. Manual Distractions

These involve the driver taking their hands off the wheel while driving to perform other tasks such as eating, texting, drinking, or applying makeup.

3. Cognitive Distractions

These distractions occur when the driver’s mind wanders away from the primary task of driving due to preoccupation with other thoughts, intoxication, strong emotions, fatigue, or drowsiness.

4. Auditory Distractions

Auditory distractions include sounds that divert a driver’s attention away from the wheel and the road, such as listening to loud music or focusing on a hands-free phone.

Common Driving Distractions

Distracted driving behavior isn’t always obvious, especially to drivers- until its impact kicks in! The top driving distractions comprise:

• Using a mobile phone while driving

Using a cell phone to text, talk, surf the internet, or in any other way while driving takes the driver’s attention, mind, and hands away from driving and often leads to catastrophic consequences. For instance, texting for 5 seconds while driving at 55 miles per hour equates to driving the entire football field with your eyes closed!

• Drowsiness and fatigue

Driving safely requires complete focus on the road and quick reflexes. Driving while drowsy or fatigued often causes drivers to doze off, diminishes their situational awareness, and impacts their reaction time. Besides the probability of falling asleep, a driver’s efforts to fight off fatigue or drowsiness often lead to more distractions to safe driving.

• Drinking

Reaching for your drink while driving can deflect your attention from the road for a dangerous split second, enough to cause a fatal crash. Moreover, drinking a hot beverage such as coffee while driving has the added risk of spilling.

• Checking the rear-view or side mirrors

Although checking the side and rear-view mirrors is a part of driving, it can take your focus off the road long enough to cause an accident.

• Passenger activity

Conversing with or tending to passengers can draw your attention off the road and lead to a dangerous crash.

• Alcohol or drug intoxication

Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs often leads to impaired judgment, reduced reaction time, loss of situational awareness, and drowsiness to the driver.

• Being lost in thought, leading to loss of focus
• Eating
• Smoking
• Applying makeup
• Fixing your hair
• Fiddling with secondary vehicle controls such as the GPS, adjusting the climate control, or tuning the car stereo
• Attending to children, pets, bugs, or other loose items inside the vehicle
• Reaching for objects inside the vehicle
• Concentrating on people, objects, or occurrences outside the vehicle.

The Impact of Distracted Driving

Distracted driving increases the likelihood of vehicular accidents such as crashes and often leads to devastating effects, including:

• Fatalities

The most devastating effect of distracted driving is deaths arising from deadly car crashes. However, it not only affects drivers and passengers but also leads to staggering numbers of pedestrian deaths, especially at crosswalks and intersections.

• Severe injury

Victims of grave distracted driving accidents who are lucky to escape death often sustain serious physical injuries such as disabilities.

• Damage or loss of property

Accidents resulting from distracted driving lead to substantial property destruction and sometimes cause property loss where the vehicle’s insurance doesn’t cover the vehicle or other possessions. Repairing or replacing the vehicles, infrastructure, and other assets involved in such incidents is costly.

• Emotional torment

The death, injury, or destruction of property caused by accidents occurring due to distracted driving leaves the victims with substantial emotional anguish.

• High medical bills

Drivers, passengers, and pedestrians involved in distracted driving accidents require immediate medical intervention. The ensuing medical expenses are sometimes enormous, especially if the victims require specialized care such as surgery.

• Legal repercussions

The legal consequences of distracted driving are typically grave and might involve legal lawsuits, license suspension or cancellation, jail term, or hefty fines.

• Impact on insurance premiums

Accidents caused by distracted driving typically lead to high vehicle insurance premiums, while successive distracted driving charges can cause the insurance premium rates to skyrocket.

• Low safety reputation

A driver who racks up distracted driving incidents impacts their safety reputation negatively. Consequently, they may suffer license suspension or cancellation.

How to Circumvent Distracted Driving

A driver can’t operate their vehicle safely unless they dedicate their full attention to driving. Here’s how you can stop distracted driving:

• Avoid using your mobile phone or other handheld electronics while driving. If you must, pull over at a safe location to use the device before getting back on the road.
• Keep your cell phone in ‘Do Not Disturb,’ ‘Airplane/Flight,’ or ‘Silent’ modes to prevent distractions from incoming calls, text messages, emails, or other alerts while driving. Alternatively, you can pair your phone with the vehicle’s hands-free audio system.
• Avoid driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
• Fine-tune all secondary vehicle controls, such as seat angle, steering position, side and rear-view mirror angles, climate control, GPS inputs, and stereo settings, and buckle up your seat belt before hitting the road.
• Ensure you get enough sleep and rest before getting behind the wheel to prevent fatigue and drowsiness while driving. If the drive is long, pull over at safe spots and take periodic breaks to refresh your mind and revitalize your body. Alternatively, take turns driving the vehicle with another driver.
• Avoid distracting behaviors like eating, drinking, smoking, and applying makeup while driving.
• Avoid driving while excited, upset, or with strong emotions or physical symptoms capable of interfering with your focus while driving.
• Pull over at a safe place to tend to children, pets, passengers, or loose items inside the vehicle before proceeding with the drive.
• Desist from sightseeing or taking pictures while driving. Instead, pull over to a rest area to enjoy the scenery outside the vehicle.
• Prepare your playlist beforehand to help you avoid fiddling with the car stereo while driving.
• Secure children, pets, and all loose objects in their respective places before starting the drive.
• Go for an auto insurance package with telematics insurance programs to promote safe and distracted-free driving. These programs track driver behavior, provide safe driving prompts, and offer better insurance premium rates based on the driver’s usage.
• Invest in smart modern distracted driving technologies that leverage innovative telematics solutions, artificial intelligence, and dashboard cameras to proactively identify and circumvent distracted driving behavior.

Conclusion 

‍Although distracted driving is a deadly menace, following the tips we’ve outlined will help you evade most of its repercussions. However, regardless of the precautions you take, your safety on the road also relies on the behavior of other drivers. Thus, if you’re a victim of a distraction-driving accident, you reserve the right to hold the distraction-driving perpetrator accountable for their negligence so you can get compensation.

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