“Each day in the United States, approximately 9 people are killed and more than 1,000 injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver”.
What Is Distracted Driving?
Distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system—anything that takes your attention away from the task of safe driving.
Another frequent question is whether talking on the phone is really any more dangerous than putting on mascara, shaving, or reading a map while driving — all things we’ve seen drivers do. I reply that indeed, any activity that distracts a driver visually or cognitively increases the risk of an accident. (And for clinicians, that includes dictating.) It’s just that cell-phone use is far more widespread than these other activities. But none of them is safe.
