The Worst Distractions While Driving

We are about to hit the time of the year where there are a lot more cars on the road, with tourists and our own adventures.  Let's all look out for one another out there on the road again this year.  A recent study found that 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes are caused by driver distractions.

Keeping hands at ten & two, constantly scanning the horizon and mirrors, and keeping a safe following distance are all trademarks of the safe driver. Eating a cheeseburger, texting a boyfriend, and blasting Lady Gaga are all trademarks of everyone else.

While safety may be first in everyone’s minds, it’s typically last on everyone’s to-do list, which is why the following distractions get people in trouble.

1. Cell Phone Texting

Perhaps the worst offender, texting while driving caused almost 1,000 fatal accidents in 2009 alone. Ironically, making the act illegal has seemingly made matters worse. While it would seem that heavy fines and tickets would curb the instances of texting while driving, the reality is that drivers are just going to greater lengths to hide the act.

This means that more eyes are on laps than roads, and therefore seem to be causing just as many accidents as before. While fully integrated voice activated technology is beginning to arrive on the scene, it is still a few years away from solving this problem, meaning that texting will remain as one of the most dangerous distractions on the road.

2. Cell Phone Talking

Ironically, even with the invention of the Bluetooth headset, talking on a cell phone is still a dangerous activity for drivers. What few people realize is that the distraction of talking while driving has little to do with having one hand on a phone.

The distraction lies in the mental ability it takes to have a fully engaged conversation while successfully executing a task that requires all five senses. Once any sort of heated, excited, or insert-your-own-emotion-here conversation kicks up, driving becomes a much more dangerous task.

3. Talking to Passengers

An astounding 25% of Americans eat fast food on a daily basis. Because the purpose of fast food is to be “fast,” and because of the greatest invention of the 20th century (the drive-thru) allows people to jam meals on their way to work, chances are, SOMEBODY is eating in their car.

Any activity that requires the use of your knee as the primary steering instrument is bad news. Because of the fact that drivers literally have their hands tied, response time and ability is severely hampered, causing the likelihood of an accident to skyrocket.

For those who can, eating slightly earlier or later is a great idea, as nobody wants their last meal to be splattered all over their windshield.

4. Eating and Drinking

An astounding 25% of Americans eat fast food on a daily basis. Because the purpose of fast food is to be “fast,” and because of the greatest invention of the 20th century (the drive-thru) allows people to jam meals on their way to work, chances are, SOMEBODY is eating in their car.

Any activity that requires the use of your knee as the primary steering instrument is bad news. Because of the fact that drivers literally have their hands tied, response time and ability is severely hampered, causing the likelihood of an accident to skyrocket.

For those who can, eating slightly earlier or later is a great idea, as nobody wants their last meal to be splattered all over their windshield.

5. Using a Navigation System

Ironically, one of the best advancements in navigation history is also one of the worst distractions. The GPS, or “electronic map” as it is called by grandpa, provides drivers with a typically difficult-to-use, hard-to-see, overall frustrating way of making their way across town.

Because drivers often rely on navigation systems to get to where they’re going, programming and following this device becomes an intense distraction. Since few drivers ever think to pull over in order to recalculate directions, these happy helpers could sometimes cause an accident.

Read more via 7 Worst Distractions While Driving - DriveSteady.com.