Distraction and driving don’t mix
Here at Autodealer we’re very concerned with road safety and have embarked upon an awareness campaign as part of the Caxton Cares initiative.
We hope to raise awareness and help prevent accidents and death caused by distracted driving.
Drinking, texting or eating whilst behind the wheel are well known as some of the most common causes of preventative accidents. Perhaps more frightening though, is that a simple conversation could also lead to a potential accident or even worse, a fatality. Each week we’ll be tackling a new distracted driving activity in our print publication but have also put together various videos, graphs and other information on your favourite area-specific Caxton website.
The research
According to a survey conducted by the University of Calgary in Canada back in January 2018 with regards to conversations, talking and using a cellphone, having a simple conservation amounted to the “driving performance to those exerted by cellphone conversation” based on the performance of 4 382 people surveyed between the ages of 14 and 84 years.
It determined that while “conversation(s) with passengers (are) generally socially accepted”, they still include factors such as taking your eyes of the roads to pay attention to passengers, which amounted to the same as looking or texting on a cellphone.
Another decidedly dangerous risk involves the obligatory every day or road trip argument, which not only involves the driver taking his/her eyes off of the road to face the often rear seat distraction, but potentially also their hands as a way of maintaining authority. Along with the obvious use of words, the combination could lead to a loss of control and eventually, an accident.
Standing in-line with this is the potential for conversations turning heated up front as a result of a disagreement or different opinion, which again could lead to the driver taking their hands off the wheel as a means of proving a point. Like with an argument, this could lead to the driver not paying to the road ahead, leading to an accident.
The final factor is road rage. Often caused by one driver cutting another off, road rage almost always involves (foul) language and can lead the “cut-off” driver wanting to invoke revenge by not only using obscene words and language, but their vehicles as a means of payback.
As it so often happens, the use of vulgar words and signals leads to a driver completely taking their attention off of the road when the moment becomes heated, leading to an almost certain accident with another car or worse, pedestrians.
