Realities of Distracted Driving
by Miko Hosillos
![Picture](/uploads/1/2/4/2/124296628/published/bigstock-injured-woman-in-car-crash-get-21674771.jpg?1550747093)
Road accidents or driving accidents act as the 9th leading cause of death as of 2018 and account for over 2.2% of deaths globally! A total of 1.25 people are involved in fatal driving accidents annually, that means over 3,287 deaths every single day and over 60% of these accidents are caused by a form of distracted driving!
What really is distracted driving?
The act of distracted driving is described as any activity that diverts attention from driving, including scrolling or texting on your phone, eating and drinking while driving, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, using entertainment or navigation systems while driving, and basically anything that takes your attention away from driving.
So why does something so mundane (like using your phone) cause so many deaths every year?
The answer is in how different drivers react to external stimuli while they are driving. Texting is the most alarming and most attention seeking distraction, texting or scrolling while driving successfully distracts a driver for a minimum of 5 seconds each time, this means that the chances of an accident occurring while reading a text is extremely high due to the fact that a driver usually responds to external stimuli (in this situation the phone) very often.
According to statistics by IceBike.Net, texting while driving is 6 times more likely to kill you than drunk driving. That's correct, it's actually safer to drive under the influence than it is to use your phone while driving. But this does not mean that you should get wasted and go out joy riding all the time! This only proves that any form of distracted driving whether influenced by external stimuli or by internal factors is dangerous in every way possible.
A total of over 78% of young adults and teenagers are involved in road accidents that are caused by distracted driving every year. This entails that majority of the demographic that get involved in accidents are Millenials or those who are part of Gen. Z!
So why is distracted driving so famous among young people?
Distracted driving is prevalent in younger generations because of their affinity in using mobile phones. According to research done by NHTSA, drivers ranging from 16-28 have a greater affinity of use their phones while driving because of their tendency to always "be in touch" which therefore lead to them using their mobile devices for social media while driving. Another reason is how the distractions in this day and age are too widespread that a simple notification 'ding!' on our phones will cause us to hurry and use our phones right away.
So what can we do to stop this?
The most concrete way for us to prevent and lessen the act of distracted driving is for us to simply be aware of the consequences and for us to have the self-discipline to stop ourselves from using any external stimuli while driving.
What really is distracted driving?
The act of distracted driving is described as any activity that diverts attention from driving, including scrolling or texting on your phone, eating and drinking while driving, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, using entertainment or navigation systems while driving, and basically anything that takes your attention away from driving.
So why does something so mundane (like using your phone) cause so many deaths every year?
The answer is in how different drivers react to external stimuli while they are driving. Texting is the most alarming and most attention seeking distraction, texting or scrolling while driving successfully distracts a driver for a minimum of 5 seconds each time, this means that the chances of an accident occurring while reading a text is extremely high due to the fact that a driver usually responds to external stimuli (in this situation the phone) very often.
According to statistics by IceBike.Net, texting while driving is 6 times more likely to kill you than drunk driving. That's correct, it's actually safer to drive under the influence than it is to use your phone while driving. But this does not mean that you should get wasted and go out joy riding all the time! This only proves that any form of distracted driving whether influenced by external stimuli or by internal factors is dangerous in every way possible.
A total of over 78% of young adults and teenagers are involved in road accidents that are caused by distracted driving every year. This entails that majority of the demographic that get involved in accidents are Millenials or those who are part of Gen. Z!
So why is distracted driving so famous among young people?
Distracted driving is prevalent in younger generations because of their affinity in using mobile phones. According to research done by NHTSA, drivers ranging from 16-28 have a greater affinity of use their phones while driving because of their tendency to always "be in touch" which therefore lead to them using their mobile devices for social media while driving. Another reason is how the distractions in this day and age are too widespread that a simple notification 'ding!' on our phones will cause us to hurry and use our phones right away.
So what can we do to stop this?
The most concrete way for us to prevent and lessen the act of distracted driving is for us to simply be aware of the consequences and for us to have the self-discipline to stop ourselves from using any external stimuli while driving.