Distracted driving is dangerous, claiming 3,166 lives in 2017 alone. NHTSA leads the national effort to save lives by preventing this dangerous behavior. Get the facts, get involved, and help us keep America’s roads safe. Texting is the most alarming distraction. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that's like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed.
Drunk Driving - Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes—that's one person every 48 minutes in 2017. These deaths have fallen by a third in the last three decades; however, drunk-driving crashes claim more than 10,000 lives per year. In 2010, the most recent year for which cost data is available, these deaths and damages contributed to a cost of $44 billion that year.
Drug-Impaired Driving - You can’t drive safely if you’re impaired. That’s why it’s illegal everywhere in America to drive under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, opioids, methamphetamines, or any potentially impairing drug–prescribed or over the counter. Driving while impaired by any substance—legal or illegal—puts you and others in harm’s way. Learn the latest research on drug-impaired driving, misconceptions about marijuana use, and what you can do to make smarter choices to drive safely.
Not Wearing Seatbelts - Of the 37,133 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2017, 47 percent were not wearing seat belts. In 2017 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 14,955 lives and could have saved an additional 2,549 people if they had been wearing seat belts.
Speeding - For more than two decades, speeding has been involved in approximately one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities. In 2017, speeding was a contributing factor in 26 percent of all traffic fatalities.
Drowsy Driving - Drowsy driving kills — it claimed 795 lives in 2017.
Visit: NHTA for more information: https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving
Quote Below by: Bob Kustra of the Idaho Statesman.
According to the University of Utah Applied Cognition Lab, the odds of getting into a crash are four times higher when a driver is talking on the cellphone, the same odds of crashing when driving drunk. For texting and driving, the statistics are even more startling. According to the National Safety Council, texting while driving is six times more likely to cause an accident than driving under the influence of alcohol, which is why experts in recent years have labeled distracted driving the new drunken driving. There are many reasons for distracted driving – food and drink, kids, pets or interactive dashboard screens – but the leading cause of distracted driving is talking or texting while driving.
Full article here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/article226047690.html