Over the past few decades, public safety advocates and state and local governments have made great strides to cut down on the frequency of accidents caused by drunk driving. But during that same time period, a new danger has arisen: Accidents caused by distracted drivers using their mobile phones.
While drunk driving is still the number one killer of motorists and pedestrians, distracted driving has become the second, with more than 3,000 people killed each year in accidents involving a distracted driver. Mobile phones have become central to the way most of us live our daily lives. But operating the phone while driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do.
Types of Distracted Driving
Mobile phones are the most common distraction for drivers. Operating a phone behind the wheel is not only dangerous, but it is also illegal. Many states, including Florida, have strict laws prohibiting texting and other phone use while operating a vehicle.
The first and most dangerous way that a mobile phone can distract a driver is when the driver looks at the phone while driving, taking their eyes off the road. Even a quick glance down can be dangerous, as road conditions can change in an instant and may require quick reactions. But in some cases, people are reading entire text messages or even watching videos while driving. When this happens, the car is essentially not being operated intelligently and is a major hazard to everyone else in the vicinity.
But a mobile phone doesn’t have to take your eyes off the road in order to impair your driving performance. Some people make calls while holding the phone up to their ear, and this takes away one of the hands that should be operating the wheel. Most of the time, a driver can drive reasonably well with a single hand, but in more hazardous road conditions or when evasive action is needed, the difference between one and two-handed driving can be fatal.
Some drivers use hands-free devices to talk on their mobile phones while driving, and this is the least dangerous form of distracted driving. But keep in mind that an involved phone conversation can still take your focus away from your driving to the point where your risk level is elevated. This is also true for a conversation with a passenger, and there’s nothing illegal in most states about having a hands-free phone conversation while driving, but any mobile phone conversation represents a distraction that impairs driving ability.
The Consequences of Distracted Driving
As mentioned earlier, distracted driving leads to more than 3,000 deaths each year in the United States. But that’s only the beginning of the toll mobile phones take. Here are some other facts and figures about the risk distracted driving poses:
- According to a study of 3,000 drivers monitored over a three-year period, drivers who were operating a mobile phone were anywhere from two to six times more likely to get in an accident.
- Another study demonstrated significant decreases in reaction time when reading text messages and typing, as well as poorer performance in terms of staying in the proper lane.
- Just the process of having a phone conversation hurts visual processing and takes away attention from the road, according to yet another study. Sufficient distraction can sometimes cause a driver not to correctly process images they’re looking right at.
In reality, any statistics about distracted driving caused by cell phones are likely to underestimate how many accidents are caused by it. That’s because many drivers would be reluctant to admit to police or insurance companies that they were on their phones when the accident occurred. So, it’s probably impossible to estimate the full cost of distracted driving.
But even with what we know, it’s apparent that distracted driving is one of the foremost hazards on the road. A large part of being a responsible driver in the era of mobile phones is putting the phone away while driving.