Driven to Distraction

Driving is serious business. It’s such an integral part of our lives, we rarely think about it. We just climb in and drive. But the truth is, when you’re behind the wheel, a split-second can mean the difference between life and death. And when you’re driving a big rig, there’s even less margin for error—and even greater potential for disaster.

Safe driving is all about paying attention. Distraction has always been a major cause of highway mishaps, and drivers are faced with more distractions now than ever.

There are three main kinds of driving distraction: visual (where you take your eyes off the road), manual (when you take your hands off the wheel) and cognitive (when you take your mind off what you’re doing). In simple terms, anything you do while driving that isn’t driving, is a distraction. You know what people do while driving. They eat. Talk to passengers. Maybe do a little personal grooming. Of course, everyone fiddles with the radio or CD player. Or their iPod. And as bad as those things are, they’re not the worst things we do. Ever see someone with a map unfolded across the steering wheel? The high-tech equivalent, GPS, can be just as bad. But nothing’s as dangerous as texting, which involves all three types of distraction—your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel, and your mind wherever your texting partner is.

Here are some sobering statistics. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 20 percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving—killing 5,474 people and injuring an estimated 448,000!

It’s a serious issue. There’s nothing we can do to eliminate distracted driving, but we can take steps to reduce distractions in our own little world. We can be aware of the things that we do while driving, and resolve to stop doing them. We don’t have to eat and drive, for example. We can map out our route and get our music all set before we step on the gas. And we could even stay off the phone while we’re on the road. We really can! But if you are on the road enough where you must use your phone, like so many of you are, at least get a Bluetooth headset, so you can keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.