The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports, “that 25 percent of the 6.3 million crashes reported each year involve some type of driver distraction.” They also revealed in a study that “dialing a cell phone triples the risk of a crash or near crash, and talking or listening to a cell phone increases that risk by 130 percent.”
Despite all the other potential distractions to drivers, global positioning systems, screens with DVD players and mp3 players cell phones still come out on top as causing the most distractions.
Only four states have actually banned cell phone use while driving with 15 other states having restrictions on cell phone use by school bus drivers and teenage drivers.
Multitasking is the American way so therefore if we are driving and need to make a call we are going to take full advantage of the opportunity to reach our destination and make that call at the same time. I have and do use my cell phone while driving but have had no problems with driving or any accidents. I think driving is just a generally difficult task to accomplish in and of itself without further distractions. Yet most humans tend to adapt to our environments exceptionally well.
Do you have difficulties talking on your cell phone while driving or have you seen others having difficulties?
I have noticed that many people tend to overestimate their own ability to drive anyway. Talking on the cell phone makes things worse.
Posted by: FrankieJ | October 24, 2006 6:18 PM | Permalink to Comment