ARE YOU DISTRACTED WHILE DRIVING?
The different kind of activities like eating, drinking, talking to your passengers, feeding with the music system, navigation system, or entertainment, having a glance at the will board, personal grooming or other distractions take your focus away from safe driving which can prove risky for your life and is known as “Distracted Driving.”
The most frightening distraction is texting. For instance, at 55 KM/H, sending or reading a text diverts your attention from the road for five seconds, which is equivalent to driving with your eyes closed the length of a football field.
Second, using a cell phone while driving raises the risk of injury or property loss by nine times. Statistics show that mobile phone usage while driving causes 12% of accidents. You must give driving your whole concentration in order to operate a vehicle. Any other activity you do while driving can prove potentially distracting and raise your chance of an accident.
In India, one accident out of ten is the result of distracted driving.
Main Factors of Distracted Driving
- Usage of phone
- Interacting with pillions
- Managing children and animals
- Changing the audio and temperature controls
- Practices of eating and drinking
- Daydreaming
- Applying makeup/grooming
- Smoking while driving
- Emotional changes like driving while sad, angry, or confused, etc.
In India, 47% of individuals take calls and 28% of people are making calls while operating a motor vehicle.
In India, 60% of drivers just would not stop their cars to take calls.
85% of individuals physically dial their calls while driving, another contributing cause of distracted driving.
HOW TO AVOID DISTRACTED DRIVING
- While driving, always pays attention.
- Make it a habit to look quickly instead of standing still for too long.
- Never read while driving; instead, pull over.
- Never stop or get dressed while operating a motor vehicle.
- Make care to groom yourself either before or after arriving at your location.
