April is Distracted Driving Awareness month. All month long, we are sharing tips to raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving and eliminate preventable deaths and injuries. Check out our first post defining common types of distracted driving behaviors.
The truth is that drivers today are more distracted than ever. Driving is a visual task and any non driving related activities that draw the driver’s attention away from the road should be avoided. Coupled with inexperience and lack of driving skills, any type of distractions while driving can be especially deadly for teen drivers.
Statistics to Review with Your Teen Driver:
- The National Safety Council reports that on a typical day, eight people are killed and hundreds more are injured in distraction related automobile crashes.
- Texting and driving statistics show that a driver who engages in this behavior is 23 times more likely to be in a crash. The data shows that this is also more dangerous than drinking and driving.
- Even though 94% of drivers think it is “extremely dangerous”, more than one third will still text and drive themselves.
- In Michigan in 2019, data shows that there were 2,789 motor vehicle crashes involving cell phone use while driving. Nationally, that same year, there were 387 fatal car crashes and 28,000 injury crashes involving cell phone use.
- For example: If sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.
- In crashes from 2016-2020 where a young driver was distracted, 58.9% were rear-end crashes.
- 6.1% of young drivers were distracted in Michigan crashes.
- Of the distracted young drivers in Michigan, 14.1% were distracted by a cell.
In our next post, we are going to share tips for avoiding distracted driving behaviors that all teen drivers can easily put into action.
