What is distracted driving? According to distraction.gov, the official government website for distracted driving, it is “any activity that could divert the driver's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger the driver, passenger, and bystander safety.” This can include a variety of things from messing with the radio, to adjusting the sat nav, or, the biggest issue, messing with your phone. Oh! Ladies, do your make up at home, not on the fracking highway. It is not that difficult of a concept to grasp. Get off your phone. You are putting people in danger.
In 2013, 3,154 people were killed by distracted drivers and 424,000 were injured. Look at those numbers. Those number include small children. Is texting “LOL!!!11!!!” really worth killing a child? S seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. At 55mph, that is enough to cover the length of a football field blindfolded. That is pretty freaking dangerous. Just walking blindfolded is tricky. Trust me. I have done it playing a game. Think about everything you crash into while trying to walk around your bedroom blindfolded. Now add several cars going an average of 60mph to that equation. It is easy to think that you are above the risk. It doesn't apply to you because you have good hand/eye coordination or you are a good driver. You know what? My husband is a good driver. He was sitting still, in the left turn lane with his blinker on, when the guy behind him ran into him. He was turning into my housing development. There is a good 60-ish yards from the time your turn off the main road to the turn to my house. The speed limit is 25. You can see everything in front of you as you are driving. The person behind the guy saw my husband at the time she turned. He was stationary. But the guy was not paying attention and hit my husband.
I cannot stress enough, how important it is to pay attention to your driving. You are not above the risk. If you keep that mentality, you will become a statistic. Hang up the phone. Pay attention and drive.
Thank you distraction.gov for the info. Check out their website for more information.