Distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding

Texting is a growing trend. More and more people are learning how to text every day. It is also quickly becoming one of the country’s top causes of death. People who text and drive are 23 times more likely to be in a traffic accident than people who do not text and drive (NHTSA, 2013). Distracted driving is a big problem throughout the United States. Looking at a text takes your eyes off the road for roughly 4.6 seconds. If you’re going 55 miles per hour, that is like driving the distance of a football field without looking (GPSSystems, 2012). Texting and Driving causes 1,600,000 accidents every year (National Safety Council, 2012). Every one of those could have been prevented.

            There are three different kinds of distracted driving: manual, visual, and cognitive.  A manual distraction is when you take one or both of your hands off the wheel. A visual distraction is when you take your eyes off the road. Finally, a cognitive distraction is when you take you mind off the road (NHTSA, 2013). Each of these can be just as dangerous as the rest.  Distracted driving doesn’t exclusively mean texting and driving. Other things could be eating, drinking, putting on make-up, reading (including maps), adjusting radio, talking on the phone, and many more. Driving is a big responsibility and it is very important that every driver knows this (NHTSA, 2013). In 2011, ten percent of traffic accidents were reported to involve a distracted driver. Even more surprising is that distracted driving is 6 times more likely to cause an accident than alcohol intoxication (NCSA, 2011).

            Another major cause of traffic accidents in the United States is impaired driving. Impaired driving is driving under the influence of certain substances, having medical conditions that affect driving, being tired, etc. while operating a motor vehicle (NCJRS, 2012). Driving while being sleepy can affect the human brain and be just as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol (National Safety Council, 2012). In the United States, 250,000 drivers fall asleep at the wheel every day, according to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School and in a national poll by the National Sleep Foundation, 54% of adult drivers said they had driven while drowsy during the past year with 28% saying they had actually fallen asleep while driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving is a factor in more than 100,000 crashes, resulting in 1,550 deaths and 40,000 injuries annually. According to the United States Department of Transportation, male drivers admit to have fallen asleep while driving twice as much as female drivers (NHTSA, 2013). These statistics show you that just because you aren’t texting or under the influence of some substance, doesn’t mean you aren’t a threat to yourself or others on the road. If you feel tired, pull over and call someone to drive for you, take public transportation, or take other measures to make sure you don’t endanger your life or the lives of others around you.

            Driving under the influence is also a very important topic. This could mean driving under the influence of alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription drugs. You should never do either of these things. Many prescription labels specifically say on the bottle not to drive or operate machinery while taking that certain medication. Many substances could impair one’s motor skills, reaction time, and judgment (Missouri Driving University, 2011).

Another big problem is speeding. Of all 2006 Missouri traffic crashes, more than 16 percent were speed related. Of all 2006 fatal traffic crashes, more than 41 percent were speed related. In 2006, a total of 454 persons were killed and 13,919 were injured in speed-related traffic crashes (Missouri Driving University, 2011). These are some pretty disturbing statistics because they can be prevented. Impaired driving, distracted driving, and speeding are the top three causes of car accidents. All of which are easily preventable. The main way to solve this is to make people aware of the dangers of doing such acts.

It is such a shame that so many people die every year because of distracted driving, impaired driving, and speeding. These are all very preventable things. Some people are even victims in these accidents and aren’t even the ones who were distracted, impaired, or speeding. People need to be aware of the dangers of these actions and know that the texts and calls can wait and if you’re late, at least you’re alive. By doing such things, you endanger your life and the lives of everyone around you. There are laws and speed limits for one reason: to save lives. It all comes down to watching the road, waiting to call or text, pulling over if you’re tired, and going the speed limit. If everyone just pays a little more attention and slows down, so many people’s lives can be saved.

Bibliography

Dangers of Speeding — Missouri Driving University. (n.d.). Welcome to Missouri's

Driving University! — Missouri Driving University. Retrieved September 16, 2013,

from http://missouri.drivinguniversity.com/speeding-tickets/dangers-of-speeding/

Distracted Driving | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | Texting and Driving.

(n.d.). Distracted Driving | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration | Texting and

Driving. Retrieved September 16, 2013, from http://www.distraction.gov/

Impaired Driving. (n.d.). National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Retrieved September 15,

2013, from https://www.ncjrs.gov/impaireddriving/

NCSA Publications & Data Requests. (n.d.). Research | National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration (NHTSA). Retrieved September 15, 2013, from http://www-

nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/CATS/listpublications.aspx?Id=7&ShowBy=Category

Texting and Driving Statistics. (n.d.).Texting and Driving Safety, No Texting and Driving.

Retrieved September 15, 2013, from http://www.textinganddrivingsafety.com/texting-

and-driving-stats/