When you stop and think about, distractions while driving are numerous. Every driver on the road, if they’re honest, can think of an instance where they were distracted behind the wheel. And while most of the time it’s pretty innocent, these distractions can in fact wind up causing car accidents.
The chance of an accident occurring immediately increases once a driver takes their focus away from the primary task of driving.
Driving distractions are far and wide but the most common ones include – talking to other passengers, changing the music on the radio, eating and drinking while driving, talking on the phone and reading/sending text messages while driving. And while you may not technically have your eyes off of the road, thinking too emotionally about work or family issues is a big distraction as well.
To better understand what people are doing while driving and why drivers get distracted, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conducted a phone survey of over 6,000 drivers over the age of 18.
Besides the distractions mentioned above, the survey also found that men more often than women use personal navigation devices (GPS) while driving. Women on the other hand are more distracted by kids in the back seat. Reading/sending text messages is especially common in drivers under 25, which is also an age group that drives two to three times more often than their elder drivers.
Drivers’ feelings on the need for laws on distracted driving, especially on cell phones and texting, was predominantly favorable – 71% of drivers support bans on handheld cell phone use while driving while an astounding 94% of drivers support bans on texting while driving.
Surveys like this one done by the NHTSA help claimant car accident attorneys like us better understand driver attitudes as well as provide an opportunity to educate others on the dangers of distracted driving.
To learn more about distracted driving and cell phone use, check out our piece in Babcock Law’s car accident knowledge center today.
