Distracted driving is anything that takes your attention away from your responsibility to safely drive your vehicle. Cognitive distractions take your mind off of driving. Visual distractions take your eyes off of the road. Manual distraction take your hands off the wheel.
Research by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that texting while driving increases our crash risk by 23 times. That is because texting involves all 3 of the major distraction types.
Driving while distracted is one of the top three causes for crashes many of which result in death or life changing injuries. These are preventable meaning they just don’t have to happen if we stay focused on our responsibilities as drivers and passengers every time we are in a motor vehicle.
Please check out the following resources.
NHTSA: Distraction.gov | www.distraction.gov/
CDC: Distracted Driving | www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/
National Safety Council | www.nsc.org/learn/NSC-Initiatives/Pages/distracted-driving.aspx
NH Driving Toward Zero | nhdtz.com/
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety | www.aaafoundation.org/distracted-driving
Allstate Teen Text Pledge | www.allstate.com/auto-insurance/teen-text-pledge.aspx
AT&T It Can Wait Program | It Can Wait
Liberty Mutual Distracted Driving | www.libertymutual.com/auto-insurance/teen-driving/articles-studies/driving-distractions
State Farm Teen Driving | teendriving.statefarm.com/learning-to-drive/driving-solo/distracted-driving
This video of the untimely death of Michael Phelps shares the story of one of the many preventable distracted driving crashes in New Hampshire. It discusses the impact from the perspectives of the family who lost their love one and of the young woman who caused the crash. It’s well worth watching.