JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas –
Distracted driving kills and injures thousands of people each year. It’s not only a problem in San Antonio; it’s a problem all across our nation. April marks the beginning of Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The focus of this campaign is to bring much-needed attention to this epidemic and urgent problem.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates over 800,000 vehicles are being driven by someone using a hand-held cellphone at any given time. It’s time we take another look at the problem responsible for 11 percent of all car accidents leading to fatalities, unnecessarily claiming nearly 4,000 lives each year.
Driving involves a constant and complex coordination between your brain and body. NHTSA defines distracted driving as any activity that diverts attention away from driving. While texting, entering information on a navigation system and fiddling with the radio may seem to be obvious, distracted driving also encapsulates talking to people in your vehicle, personal grooming and eating or drinking. You can keep yourself and anyone in your vehicle from becoming a distracted driving statistic by following these simple rules:
- Stay focused
- Pay attention
- Expect the unexpected
- Avoid temptation to outside distractions
In accordance with Department of Defense Instruction 6055.04, DOD personnel, while driving any vehicle on or off installations on official government business are prohibited from text messaging, using cellphones or using other hand-held electronic devices unless the vehicle is safely parked or they are using a hands-free device.
The NHTSA leads the national effort to save lives by preventing this dangerous behavior. Distracted driving is dangerous, claiming 3,450 lives in 2016 alone.
The 502nd ABW Safety Office challenges you to become a change agent for stopping distracted driving and to challenge your coworkers and family to drive safely every day. We need to grow the culture that distracted driving must be stopped. Become the voice of stopping distracted driving.
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Driving distracted can be due to myriad reasons, but ultimately can be classified into the following types of distraction: visual, manual and cognitive.