Cell phone use is leading cause of driver distraction
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. To further awareness, Carilion Clinic Life-Guard, along with trauma services at Carilion New River Valley Medical Center and Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital will offer distracted driving classes to high schools in Carilion’s service areas. The distracted driving program will also be offered to EMS agencies and fire departments if interested.
Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions – adjusting your radio, eating, texting, talking to passengers, using navigation endanger driver, passenger and bystander safety.
“Cell phone usage is by far the most prevalent distraction leading to crashes and near-crashes. Text messaging requires taking your hand off the wheel, diverting your eyes, and taking your thoughts away from driving, making this the most alarming distraction,” said Susan Smith, transport director at Carilion Clinic. “Our goal is to educate everyone, with a particular focus of high school students, about the danger distractions pose.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2012, over 3,000 people were killed and about 400,000 were injured in multi-vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver. And according to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, a driver that is texting is 23 times more likely to be involved in a car accident than a focused driver.
Smith added, “The average driver that texts has to take their eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds during a 6 second interval. That means that a driver traveling 55 mph would have traveled the length of a football field without looking at the roadway. It’s scary.”
The best solution to eliminate distraction regarding cell phone use is to turn off cell phones, hand it to a passenger, or pull over and stop in a safe place to use the phone.
For more information, visit www.CarilionClinic.org.