Distracted Driving Trumps Drinking and Driving for King of Road Disasters.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by epicbeer

With the rise in the use of cell phones and smartphones, distracted driving has become a big problem, maybe even more so than drinking and driving.  “Don’t drink and drive” seems to be a phrase that is agreed upon and accepted globally. We know it’s not acceptable to do it, even though some ignorant people seem to be missing part of their brain and for some reason do it anyway.  What if I told you that you are better off putting a beer in your hand instead of a cellphone while driving? (NOTE: we are by no means advising people to put a beer in their hand while driving … let’s be clear about that.)  You’d probably roll your eyes and think I’m going to give you some over-exaggerated speech about texting and driving. Bingo… minus the over-exaggerated part.

Last year, 11,000 fatalities were the result of distracted driving. Distracted driving has now replaced Drinking and Driving as the #1 cause of accidents and fatalities for teenage drivers. And there’s no sign of the distractions stopping. Smartphones have been around for a while now. There is now a slew of Droid phones which you can buy for under $100 that give you access to the internet, apps, fun & addicting texting and all sorts of other extremely distracting things. It’s easy for a teenager to pick one up for cheap and join in on the mobile media frenzy. With more friends, apps and features the more excuses there will be to use our phones.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Lord Jim

What can we do to circumvent the issue? Recently U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released the ‘Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving’ which is a guideline to why distracted driving is a problem and what we can do to resolve it. I encourage anyone to give it a read, there are some pretty eye-popping statistics. Another clever application to prevent distracted driving is the NoTXTnDrive® App. For a small fee you can install the app on your (or your teenage driver’s) phone with no additional costs or monthly fees. Once installed, the app automatically activates when it determines if the user is driving using the phone’s internal GPS. Once activated, it denies access to phone calls, texting and email. Once the driver has stopped driving the app automatically deactivates and the phone is returned to full functionality.

You can download the Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving HERE. For the NoTXTnDrive® App use you mobile phone’s app store to search and download the app.

I remember about ten years ago, my friend’s wife was driving on Asbury Rd. in Dubuque near the Dog House Lounge and was trying to grab a cd from her cd case so she could listen to it.  She accidentally fumbled the cd and it ended up slightly under the unoccupied passenger’s seat.  So she leaned over the middle console and was trying to reach for the cd … at the same time, the car in front of her was turning left across oncoming traffic and she didn’t see the brake lights because she was focused on trying to grab that darn cd.  Consequently she slammed into the stopped car and smashed up her front end.  She wasn’t hurt other than a bump on the head, but that 1 distraction cost her a $200 ticket, a mark on her driving record, and $500 in terms of the deductible amount she had to pay according to her insurance policy.  Now with the rise in smartphone use, it seems like there’s the possibility of so many more distractions with each trip across town … especially if drivers are texting or using the internet.  

In the end it comes down to the individual to tell themselves that they will not put their, or others, lives in danger by distracting themselves on the road. You can think what you want of your ability to multi-task, but when you do anything but pay full attention to the road you are putting everything, and everyone, at risk.  Call out your friends and family for using their phones while driving. Make it known that it is not alright to be distracted behind the wheel. For more information on distracted driving I would highly recommend check out www.distraction.gov.

Runde Auto Group would like to advise everyone that it’s a best practice to pull over to the side of the road if you’re driving and want to or need to use your cell phone.