You’ve probably seen the campaigns trying to prevent distracted driving. You may know that the police can fine you if they see you using your phone while driving. And you may have heard distraction mentioned in numerous crashes reported on the TV.
But do you understand why it continues to claim over 3,000 lives a year?
It’s because distraction is so prevalent
What are you doing when you drive? Are you doing nothing other than holding the wheel, looking ahead and in your mirrors and thinking only about the road around you? It’s unlikely because maintaining this level of focus is difficult. Most drivers spend a lot of their time distracted.
You could be distracted in one of three ways
There are three kinds of distraction and some things can distract you in all three ways at once.
- Cognitive: Are you feeling hungry? Do you have a snack in the car? You are already distracted if you are thinking about it. That’s cognitive distraction because your brain is thinking about that snack, not the road.
- Physical: You reach for the snack, open it and bring it to your mouth. That’s a physical distraction right there because you need to use one or both of your hands to do this. Your hands are meant to stay on the wheel when driving.
- Visual: Did you locate the snack bar without once averting your eyes from the road? Or did you move your eyes to see where in your bag or car it was? If so, that was a visual distraction. You took your eyes off the road to look elsewhere and in that split second, could have missed something vital..
Next time you drive, try to avoid distraction. But know that it’s not easy to avoid it entirely. Even just thinking about how you avoid distraction will be distracting. Nevertheless, while distraction is commonplace and hard to avoid, a driver who injures you because they were distracted should be liable for compensation.