The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The next time you're driving down the highway and your hand-held cell phone rings, remember this: you're four times as likely to get in to an accident if you answer it. If you're texting, your chances increase to 23 times. Need to read that text while on the highway? A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that drivers who are texting spent nearly five seconds looking at their cell phones _ enough time at typical highway speeds to drive the length of a football field. Driver distractions contribute to 80 per cent of all crashes, according to an American study. And while hand-held cell phones are cited as the number-one cause of all driver distractions today, they aren't the only thing causing people to take their eyes off the road. Whether you're driving around the block or across town, it's important to keep your focus on your driving. It's something that's in your control. Other driver distractions include eating while driving, grooming and even talking to your passengers. And that's just inside the vehicle. Outside distractions, such as rubbernecking an accident or trying to communicate with another driver, are involved in 30 per cent of all at-fault fatal accidents, according to an American study. Many accidents involving distracted drivers are preventable. Driving requires full attention. Not just for your own safety, but for that of your passengers and everyone else on the road. In many cases, you can identify distracted drivers by how they're driving. They're the people who are often driving slower than the rest of traffic or drifting from one side of the lane to the other. They're the ones who are likely to miss a traffic sign or fail to signal. And they're the ones putting themselves and other drivers, cyclists and pedestrians at risk. Fortunately, driving distracted is entirely preventable. Drivers can reduce their risk of getting into an accident by turning off their phones while driving or getting someone else to make, or take, the call, and by leaving enough time in the morning or at lunch so you don't have to eat or shave on-the-go. And while human curiosity makes it tempting to stare at a roadside crash, motorists should exhibit extreme caution when passing by a crash scene. Rubbernecking is a definite no-no. Even adjusting your radio or changing your CD player increases your risk of a collision by six times. We all have an opportunity to reduce the risk of a collision by keeping our eyes on the road and our hands on the wheel. - MPI
