Distracted Driving Is the Cause of 15 Accidents Per Day

Distracted driving accounts for 15 accidents each day.  Our largest distraction?  Cell phones.  We live in a world of multitasking, but this one multitask could cost us a lot!

In response to the increase in accidents caused by distracted driving, in February of this year, a law was passed that makes texting while driving a primary offense.  This means that an officer does not need any other reason to pull you over.  In many states, it is a first offense to use cell phones while driving without a hands free device.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Virginia considers making a similar law in the future.
Here are a few more statistics that I am pulling directly from www.distraction.gov:

• In 2010, 3092 people were killed due to distracted driving accidents
• 18% of Crashes in 2010 were due to distracted driving
• 11% of all drivers under the age of 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted.
• Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted.
• Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent-at 55 mph-of driving the length of an entire football field, blind.
• Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%.