February 18, 2010
Driver Safety
Get Home Safely
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Studies prove that only dummies talk and text while driving.
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Just as drinking and driving used to be acceptable until society decided collectively that it should be shunned, driving while distracted should not be considered “acceptable” today.
Perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at our driving habits and start shunning what are obviously dangerous habits. In the United States, NAFA has partnered with the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) to promote the issue of safe driving. This year’s theme is “Drive Focused, Drive Smart, Get Home Safely.”
The goal of the campaign is to get drivers to stop and think about the more important things in life—friends and family. We all need to drive for work-related reasons, but is it really necessary for us to multitask while driving, risk the possibility of a fatal collision, and lose out on the joys of spending time with loved ones?
Caught up in the flurry of day-to-day business activities, we may be tempted to talk or text while driving, never thinking twice about the preciousness of the lives we risk and the fact that the reason we’re busy working in the first place is to support and provide for that special someone who is counting on us to get home safely at night.
Multi-tasking
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, drivers make an average of 20 major decisions during every mile of driving. This requires that drivers coordinate the actions of their hands, feet, eyes, ears and other body parts—20 times over the course of a single mile.
So the question we can ask ourselves is:
Aren’t I already busy enough driving? Do my eyes, ears, brain, and hands really need something else to do? Does it make sense for me to focus on a phone conversation or try to return an email while driving at highway speeds, negotiating turns, and dodging danger?
A recent federal government study concluded that distracted drivers are the leading cause of crashes in the United States, accounting for 80% of crashes and 65% of near crashes. Canadian statistics, no doubt, mirror those compiled by the Americans.
Tips
NETS has come out with a number of great tips to help drivers stay safe. We’ve all been told many times that we shouldn’t talk on the phone while driving, but most of us feel that we are skilled enough drivers, and coordinated enough human beings to multi-task effectively.
Yet our perception of our individual skills and abilities lies in stark contrast to the findings of many studies. In fact, it is now firmly believed that the ability to multitask while driving is a myth. We can’t drive and eat, or drive and talk on the phone. We can only drive OR eat OR talk on the phone. Our brains simply can’t handle everything at once—no matter how highly we think of ourselves.
Whether we’re commuting to and from work, or driving as a function of our job, we need to focus on the task at hand. True, it may be possible at times to talk, text, eat, and drive when road conditions are perfect and traffic flows predictably without anyone of the road making a mistake, a sudden lane change, and when no one ahead brakes suddenly. But if life were really that predictable we wouldn’t need car insurance, would we?
If all logic fails and you still feel compelled to talk or text while driving, please remember this year’s NETS theme—“Drive Focused, Drive Smart, Get Home Safely.”—and remind yourself that there’s someone counting on you to get home safe tonight.
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Jack Kazmierski