I’ll be the first one to say that drunk driving is extremely dangerous, not just to the person driving under the influence, but also for the public as a whole. And it is that last part that has led to the hypervigilance in condemning drunk driving and demonizing people who make the mistake of driving under the influence.
What I find perplexing is the absence of the same hypervigilance and condemnation for other actions while driving which are similar in nature to drunk driving, namely distracted driving. Not speaking about DUI incidences which actually cause injury, the public’s distain toward drunk driving stems from the drivers’ disregard that their actions are putting the public in danger. Couldn’t the same be said for texting while driving, eating while driving, or even driving while tired? These actions are similar in nature to driving under the influence; a person doing something while driving which they know can harm themselves or others.
So what makes drunk driving so much worse? Nearly every person who holds the belief that drunk driving is worse, at least with whom I’ve talked to, believe that diving after drinking is more dangerous that distracted driving.
Well a new study by the Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a leader in smartphone-centric telematics, suggests that distracted driving is as dangerous as drunk driving.
Cambridge Mobile Telematics’s web apps measured driving behaviors for hundreds of thousands of drivers in six categories; phone use while driving, excessive speed, braking, acceleration, cornering and time of driving.
Some of the study’s key findings included: Distracted driving occurred during 52 percent of trips that resulted in a crash; on drives that involved a crash, the average duration of distraction was 135 seconds; phone distraction lasts for two minutes or more on 20 percent of drives with distraction, and often occurs at high speeds; the worst 10 percent of distracted drivers are 2.3 times more likely to be in a crash than the average driver, and 5.8 times more likely than the best 10 percent of distracted drivers.
“Distracted driving due to smartphone use is intuitively blamed for the increase in road crashes and claims,” said Hari Balakrishnan, Chief Technology Officer of Cambridge Mobile Telematics. “What’s less intuitive is that smartphones hold the solution to the problem they created. Drivers now have access to tools that analyze their driving and achieve real behavioral change through immediate and ongoing feedback.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol impaired driving crashes account for nearly one third of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. Drugs other than alcohol, both legal and illegal, are involved in about 16 percent of motor vehicle crashes.
“This data makes it clear that distracted driving is one of the most urgent public safety problems facing our communities today,” said Balakrishnan. “With April being Distracted Driving Awareness Month, it’s important to take a critical look at how we can most effectively reduce the danger that drivers face. By harnessing the very technology that threatens driver safety, and using it to help drivers understand and improve their behavior, we’re making the world safer by the day.”
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