Ever find yourself behind the wheel but not fully focused on the traffic around you? Or notice someone else on the road that’s not paying attention to a critical situation? It can feel pretty alarming. There are a number of reasons why we might get distracted or lose focus out on the road. Mobile phones are the biggest threat of all.
So, what can you do about it? First off, we should consider why distraction happens. There are a few different factors that lead us to lose focus. One major reason is inattention – this can be caused from being too tired, or from being bored and letting your mind wander. Another type of danger is paying attention to the wrong thing – such as fully focusing on the car in front of you and missing a cyclist approaching from the side. Or, it could be due to a distraction, such as eating while driving or typing an address into your navigation system while on the road.
These days, the source of the distraction is most likely to be a mobile phone. Mobile phones are a bigger threat our attention than most people realise. Especially when out on the road where mobile phone usage could distract drivers in several ways:
Research from the U.S Department of Transportation shows that sending or reading a short text message takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. That’s enough for a truck travelling at 80 km an hour to travel 110 meters – or like driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed.
The evidence is quite clear on the direct correlation between mobile phone usage and accidents with a Norwegian study based on insurance records concluding that the use of a mobile telephone during driving increases the likelihood of being involved in a crash by about 1,7 times! The statistics are even worse for texting.
But it can be hard to resist the dopamine kick you get from a checking a Facebook notification or a text message. And the more a driver uses their phone without incident, the more likely they might be lulled into a false sense of security. I’ve even seen drivers go so far as Facetiming in moving traffic!
Even though there is nothing we can do to eliminate inattention and distraction altogether, there are plenty of steps we can take to reduce it. Simple steps such as making sure you get a good night’s sleep ahead of a long day on the road, taking frequent stops and keeping your mind active during a dull section of a highway, for example, by listening to music or a good podcast.
With the introduction of driver assist features like emergency braking and lane-keeping assist, I sometimes get questions about whether those might help make up for a couple seconds of distraction. And here the answer is a definite no. While these features offer a lot in terms of safety and comfort, advanced safety systems do not make your truck accident-proof! In fact if drivers are under a false impression about their safety when certain safety features are activated, they could relinquish their responsibilities with fatal consequences.
Studies have shown that regular users of advanced driver assistance systems are almost twice as likely to drive distractedly compared to those who don’t use them. As a safety expert I find this extremely alarming as there is no safety feature out there today that can replace a good and focused driver!
It’s unrealistic to expect that we can totally eliminate the use of mobile phones out on the road although most countries in the EU, US and Australia have laws in place to ban hand-held devices. But with so much at stake—lives for one but also financial losses—it’s worthwhile to take a few important steps when on the road. Here is a look at some of them.
Before the journey:
During the journey:
When we talk about fuel efficient driving it’s usually about tips and tricks on how to save fuel on long stretches of …
The three-point seat belt was invented sixty years ago by Volvo, and has been credited as saving over one million …
Statistics show that nearly half of all traffic fatalities occur in the dark. This despite only a quarter of journeys …