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Distracted
Driving Habits
10
Most Dangerous Distracted Driving Habits
BY AKWELI PARKER
.
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It's probably safe to
reason the 18-year-old man didn't leave the house with intentions to kill
someone that day.
As
he went about his business, he casually held his car's steering wheel in one
hand and a cell phone in the other. He certainly hadn't planned on running that
red light.
That
was when a semi-tractor trailer swerved to avoid clobbering his car.
Instead
of hitting the negligent driver, the rig plowed directly into the vehicle
carrying Jacy Good and her parents, Jean and Jay Good.
The
trio was returning from Jacy's 2008 graduation from Muhlenberg College near
Allentown, Pa.
Jacy's parents were
killed instantly.
She
was critically injured and endured agonizing rehabilitation sessions to regain
her speech and her ability to do just the simplest of tasks.
The
Goods' story is just one of thousands each year of the pain inflicted by
distracted driving.
It's no wonder that
"distracted driving" has been called "the new drunk
driving" [source: The Economist].
Distractions inside
our vehicles abound. For many professionals, their car, truck or SUV is truly
their office on wheels.
For
younger drivers, the car continues to serve as a social hub as it has for
decades.
But
now vehicles are not just a mobile party; they've also become a spot to place
calls and send texts -- all too often with deadly consequences.
Every day,
distracted driving kills more than 15 people and injures more than 1,200 [source: Centers for Disease Control].
The purpose of this
article isn't to scold busy drivers or hasten the dawn of a vehicular nanny
state.
Instead,
it simply lays out some of the most dangerous habits that distract drivers --
habits that you might not even guess to be all that risky. As the saying goes,
forewarned is forearmed.
So start arming
yourself for safer driving by reading the No. 10 habit on our list of Most
Dangerous Distracted Driving Habits.
10 Eating and
Drinking
Compared
to some of the other distracted driving habits on our list, this one might seem
relatively tame.
After
all, it doesn't demand all that much cognitive horsepower to stuff your gullet
while on the move.
But before you get too enamored
of underway refueling, consider some of the things that could go wrong:
· You could spill
scalding coffee on your lap
· That breakfast
sausage muffin or deluxe burger could collapse in your hands, sending crumbs,
sauce and patty pieces all over your work outfit
· Greasy hands or
one-handed driving means less control of the steering wheel and shifter
In each of these cases, drivers
face a potential domino effect where impaired attention plus an unexpected
event lead to loss of control.
Solution: Eat before or after you
get behind the wheel; to chow down during your drive places you and others at
risk.
Next up, could vanity cause an
automotive calamity?
DRIVING DISTRACTIONS
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration identifies three distinct types of driving distraction:
· Visual -- not watching where you're going
· Manual -- taking your hand or hands off the wheel
· Cognitive -- allowing your mind to drift from the task of
driving [Source: Distraction.gov]
9 Applying Makeup or Grooming
We
treat it almost as a joke: the harried office worker who slogs through morning
rush hour while painting her face; the road warrior who uses drive time as
shaving time.
There's even a conveniently
placed "vanity mirror" in the fold-down visor right above the
windscreen to facilitate this morning ritual.
As
usual, the blamed culprit is shortage of time. With our schedules more
compressed than ever, the car or SUV might seem like the perfect place to take
care of less mentally taxing tasks such as personal grooming.
But there's little arguing with
the science on distracted driving.
All
but a small percentage (between 2 and 3 percent) of the population experience a
noticeable decline in performance when they try to do two or more things at
once [source: Watson and Strayer].
You may have gotten away with
eyebrow plucking on the interstate up until now, but just remember that it's
always a gamble.
Continue on to find out how our
furry little companions compound our risk on the road.
8 Tending to Fido or Kitty
Clawing their
way in at No. 8, as you may have guessed, are pets. Next to kids, or perhaps in
lieu of kids, pets are the collective apples of our eye.
Circumstances
dictate that sometimes we want to, or have to, transport them.
The reason
could be a veterinarian visit, a move to a different home or maybe just a trip
to the park or beach outside of walking distance.
In any case,
the last thing you need is an animal roaming around inside your vehicle while
you drive.
For the same
reasons you wouldn't want people shuffling around the cramped passenger
compartment, pets should be secured. It's safer for them, you and others
outside your vehicle.
Fortunately,
there are carriers for cats and other small pets.
For larger
dogs, you can try vehicle partitions or even doggy harnesses that strap your
canine securely into a seat. That way he can enjoy the wind in his face without
getting fur and slobber in yours.
The proper
securing device, coupled with your reassuring words and caresses, should make
riding in the car a tolerable and perhaps downright enjoyable experience for
your pet.
And unlike our
next subject, pets don't require expensive video games or other electronics to
remain settled.
7 Keeping an Eye
on the Kids
The little
bundles of joy can be anything but if they don't have distractions of their own
to while away time in the car.
Whether it's
two or more young ones squabbling or a lone infant protesting to be released
from a restrictive child safety seat, you do not want to divert your attention
from the road to indulge them.
According to
the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, passengers are ranked by drivers as
among the most frequent causes of distraction.
Young children
are four times as distracting as adults, while infants can be a whopping eight
times more distracting, the AAA Foundation reports.
Think
carefully, though, about stealing a few seconds' glance to investigate while at
cruising speed.
It takes only a
fraction of a second for a road-borne hazard to enter your vehicle's collision
zone and precipitate a disaster.
For the sake of
everyone involved, if the little ones' screaming is about to force you to turn
around and go back there -- pull over first.
6 Driving While
Drowsy
It
was a late night. Maybe you figured, "I didn't drink any alcohol, I'll be
fine."
But
not long after getting behind the wheel, it felt as if your eyelids were
anchored with five-pound weights.
No
matter how loudly you blasted the stereo or how many windows you rolled down,
Mr. Sandman relentlessly seduced you to join him.
If that's ever
happened to you and you're still here to read this, you're lucky. You're also
not alone.
Nearly
41 percent of drivers say they've fallen asleep behind the wheel at some point
or another, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
The
NHTSA estimates drowsy driving in the United States causes 100,000 crashes a
year, resulting in 40,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths [source: NHTSA].
Of course, it's not
always convenient or safe to pull over and catch a few winks.
Perhaps
you don't think you need or can afford a night at a hotel or motel. But
considering the alternative -- death -- it seems reasonable to consider it a
non-discretionary purchase.
We go from mental
shutdown to sensory overload with our next distraction. Continue to the next
page to see why some people can't seem to keep their eyes on the road.
5 Fiddling with Entertainment and
Onboard Electronics
Just because
manufacturers and aftermarket companies make high-tech gadgets you can play
with while driving doesn't mean you should.
Wisely, in-car
DVD players are set by the factory to only play in view of the driver when the
vehicle is parked.
While that
setting doesn't stop determined mobile multitaskers, at least it sends the
message: The people who made these things think it's a bad idea to watch DVDs
and drive at the same time.
Regular and
satellite radios, iPod adaptors and navigation systems can all be deadly
digital devices, in the wrong hands.
To prevent your
love affair with gadgets from becoming a fatal attraction, pull over if a gizmo
requires you to focus on a screen and remove your eyes from the road.
There's nothing
wrong with In-Car Entertainment (ICE) in and of itself. But drivers need to
know when to draw the line so that they don't wind up on a cold slab.
Many of us
confess to taking a certain amount of guilty pleasure in rubbernecking. But can
overindulging lead to a broken neck or worse? Continue on to find out.
4 Watching Roadside
Diversions
Billboards
are now animated and practically dare you to try not looking at them.
Elsewhere,
the hazard might be roadside bombshells -- like if you happen to be cruising
through South Beach.
We humans are hardwired to notice
the extraordinary.
In
our earliest days, the unusual could have represented an animal that wanted us
for lunch or even a potential mate from another tribe who could diversify the
genes of our offspring.
One
big difference between now and then was that we didn't have the ability to
hurtle ourselves across the landscape faster than even a cheetah.
At 55 miles per hour (88.5
kilometers per hour), a car can cover half the length of a football field in
about 4 seconds.
So
while your attention is focused on that toned hardbody strutting along the
sidewalk, there's plenty of time for a cell phone-occupied driver to cut in
front of you without looking.
While, arguably, our ancient
hardwiring makes women better-suited to vehicular multitasking in the modern
era, it's dangerous to divide your attention (hence your reaction time) among
multiple activities behind the wheel, no matter what your gender.
One of the best -- or perhaps
worst -- examples of this is our next distracted driving habit. It's guaranteed
to push your buttons, so click to the next page to find out more.
3 Texting and Updating Social Media
OMG -- were you actually surprised by this one? Here's
a stat that's nothing to LOL about -- you're 23 times more likely to crash if
you text while driving [source: Distraction.gov].
Prior to the 2000s, this
distraction would not have even made the list.
But
with proliferating technology and social media platforms, it's become one of
the worst collective weapons of mass distraction with which we have to contend.
It takes about five seconds of
attention to a screen and keyboard to send a brief text.
Disturbingly,
77 percent of young adult drivers say they can safely drive while texting [source: stoptextsstopwrecks.org].
In actuality, distracted driving
accidents, including those caused by the use of handheld devices, collectively
form the No. 1 killer of teens, according to the NHTSA and others.
While it's convenient to blame our
problems on technology, sometimes it's quite apparent that the issue really
lies with us.
To
see how having a head in the clouds might put a person underground, go on to
the next page.
2 Daydreaming
Driving can be
an opportune time to organize your thoughts, clear your mind, think through
problems or just enjoy a few moments of solitude.
With
experience, routine driving becomes an automatic activity in and of itself.
Like brushing
our teeth, we don't really have to think about the intricately coordinated
choreography of our senses and muscles while driving.
So we might
think we have plenty of processing power left over to focus on non-driving
related tasks. And that can be dangerous, if we overestimate our powers of
focus.
If you've ever
let your mind wander and missed your exit on the highway -- then considered
swerving across several lanes to catch it -- you're probably aware of the risk
posed by daydreaming.
The fact is
driving a car equates to operating heavy machinery.
Just as you
wouldn't expect a crane operator to drift off while hoisting tons of metal
beams overhead, responsible driving means maintaining focus.
Not only is it
a courtesy to your fellow drivers, but it helps you to spot and avoid crazies
on the road!
So what's our
No. 1 driving distraction? This one has really stirred passions, on both sides
of the distracted driving debate.
Continue to the
next page to see what all the talk is about.
1 Talking on the
Phone
Ringing
in at the top spot on our list: talking on the phone. This dubious honor goes
to the granddaddy of distracted driving, the now-ubiquitous cell phone.
Ever
since Wall Street titans and wannabe titans wielded the gigantic brick phones
of the 1980s, our obsession with mobile communication has gotten us in trouble
behind the wheel.
Driving under the influence of a
cell phone, be it handheld or hands-free, impairs driver reaction to the same
level as being at the legal limit for blood alcohol content of .08 [source: stoptextsstopwrecks.org].
Hands-free headsets appear to
reduce the risk somewhat -- instead of both cognitive and manual impairment as
you have with a handheld device, hands-free units only tie up your mental
capabilities; in some jurisdictions, they're mandatory for people who talk on
the phone while they drive.
Studies suggest that talking on a
cell phone roughly quadruples a person's risk of being involved in a crash [source: AAA Foundation].
How could something that seems so
innocuous be so deadly? Once again, it lies in the brain's ability to truly do
only one thing at a time.
We've
become such masters at task switching that we create the illusion of
successfully doing two or more things simultaneously.
But
throw a surprise into the mix, like a child darting into traffic or a slamming
of the brakes by the car in front of us, and the brain can quickly fail to keep
pace.
So
there you have it -- 10 of the most dangerously distracting habits you can
engage in while driving.
While
you might have a greater awareness of the risks now, just remember that many
people don't. So be safe out there.
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