Did you know that the consequence of being caught drinking and driving are things such as fines, jail time, suspended license, and depending on the state they may require community service. Those are many different consequences. And did you know that the consequences for being caught distracted while driving are a warning or a citation. They are equally as dangerous. Drinking and driving accident numbers are going down. But distracted driving crashes numbers are going up. Ninety six percent of people in the United States have a cell phone. According to the Insurance Information Institute fourteen percent of all fatal car crashes, not just distracted crashes, involved a cell phone. And that doesn’t even involve the ones that were not fatal. 

According to the AAA over 84% of drivers realize that it’s not ok to text or use a phone while driving. But 36% of those same people admit to using a cell phone while driving. People are being hypocritical and know it’s not okay but still do it. Forty three percent of distracted driving is associated with a cell phone. Distracted driving isn’t just using a cell phone, although that’s the most common. Eating, drinking, talking on the phone, using a navigation device are all considered distracted driving.  Being engaged to anything other than driving is considered distracted driving. 

Distracted driving is a choice, people choose to take their eyes off the road and focus on something else. Being distracted in a car is always unsafe. Hitting other things than cars is just as possible. About 1 in 5 of the people who died in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2018 were not in vehicles. They were either walking, riding their bikes, or otherwise outside a vehicle.

I am calling upon local police officers and authorities to take distracted driving more seriously. Pulling over a distracted driver should be a serious situation. Letting distracted drivers back onto the road is like trusting a dog to drive. When drunk drivers are caught they are taken from their vehicle, but when distracted drivers are caught they are let back onto the road. They will most likely do it again. 

Distracted driving has many people worried on the road. Most drunk drivers drive at night, but distracted driving happens all day. More than half of motorcyclists think that distracted driving is the biggest threat on the road. If you’re driving 55mph and you take your eyes off the road for 5 seconds, your vehicle will cover the length of a football field before your eyes are back on the road.