The 4 Most Dangerous Activities You Can Do with Your Phone While Driving
Gif of a guy playing flute while in traffic
As you drive to and from work, running errands and shuttling the kids to school, you’ve probably seen your fair share of drivers doing really dumb things while driving. From women trying to put on mascara while doing 70 mph on the freeway, to men changing into T-shirts and shorts while behind the wheel, there is no shortage of doofus driver decisions.
Many of the dangerous decisions people make while driving share one thing in common: a smartphone. For instance, check out the following four unsafe tasks drivers will attempt with their phones while driving:
Texting while driving
There’s a reason why those gruesome commercials starring distracted and texting teens hurtling through windshields are on the air so often. Despite the warnings, people continue to text and drive. As Driving Tests notes, while you might be tempted to read or send a quick text while on the road, there are many good reasons not to take part in this risky behavior.
In addition to probably being illegal, your insurance rates will go through the roof if you get a ticket for texting and driving. And if you won’t consider your own safety, think about your passengers. Your kids, friends, spouse and co-workers are far more important than any text you could read or send on the road. To avoid temptation, it’s best to keep your smartphone in your pocket, purse, or plain out of sight.
Facebooking while driving
As a study conducted by AT&T notes, 4 in 10 smartphone users confessed to using social media while driving. Of these sites, Facebook is No. 1 in popularity, with more than a quarter of respondents admitting to using the app while behind the wheel. Similarly, around 1 in 7 drivers are tweeting on the road.
When asked why they would rather see their friends’ inane posts about what they ate for breakfast that morning instead of focusing on driving, 22 percent of drivers said they were addicted to social media. Needless to say, this is an addiction that should definitely be broken. Like texting, browsing on Facebook takes your eyes off the road and can easily result in a tragic and even fatal accident.
Snapping selfies while driving
Another common smartphone-while-driving activity is taking selfies.
The same AT&T poll found that 17 percent of people say they have done this at least once. In addition to requiring drivers to fiddle with their smartphones to set up the camera, it also means they are looking at the camera and not the road while making their best duck face, ever. Chances are good that once this unsafe selfie is taken, the driver will go one step further and post it on social media, meaning he or she is distracted from driving for even longer.
Talking on Skype and FaceTime while driving
Many states have banned using a smartphone to talk while driving unless you are using a hands-free Bluetooth device. But this does not seem to be stopping some drivers from engaging in video chat while on the road. As Digital Trends notes, 10 percent say they have used Skype or FaceTime while driving. Many people use these tools to see loved ones during their conversations, but when driving, chances are they aren’t looking at the road, which is a recipe for disaster.
Source: Social Monsters
- Published in Auto Safety, Driver Safety, Mobile
Selfies Behind the Wheel: Deadlier than Drunk Driving
Distracted driving is gaining attention as a serious issue and combine it with the epidemic of selfies behind the wheel and you have a potentially lethal combination. When you look at the statistics surrounding road traffic accidents and the fact that taking a selfie is considered to be more dangerous than drunk-driving, it soon becomes painfully clear that something needs to be done to address this problem.
The dangerous act of taking a selfie
There is a valid argument to suggest that taking a selfie whilst behind the wheel of your car is actually a more dangerous activity than driving your car whilst drunk, which is worrying as that is a pretty irresponsible act in its own right.
The problem of taking selfies whilst driving is not necessarily confined to younger drivers, but according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists, close to 20% of drivers aged under 35 years of age admitted to the act when questioned in a survey, compared to 9% overall. Whichever way you look at it, these figures can be considered alarmingly high.
Testing driver’s reactions
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) have provided a driver distraction fact sheet which highlights the inherent dangers of distracted driving due to the use of mobile phones in vehicles. In simple terms, a driver is distracted when they are trying to pay attention to a secondary activity rather than concentrating solely on ensuring they are driving their vehicle safely.
Just as simple to understand is the fact that despite our conviction to the contrary, most of us are not actually hardwired to safely multi-task and this is even more the case when the extra activity is considered time consuming or slightly complex. The extra demands placed on our attention such as the act of taking a selfie while driving, leads us to become less observant and make worse driving decisions, so our reactions are diminished. Simulator tests consistently back up this observation and show that our reactions are slower when we are driving distracted, therefore increasing our chances of being involved in an accident.
Selfies are just the beginning
Whatever your opinion of the act of taking a selfie in general, it seems that this form of distracted driving could be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to irresponsible behaviour behind the wheel.
A disturbingly high number of one in 12 motorists actually admitted to using Skype or FaceTime to video call someone while they were driving and an incredible seven percent of motorists surveyed by motoring organisations, admitted to watching TV behind the wheel.
With so many people seemingly willing to take selfies, send emails or even watch TV whilst trying to drive, it is not surprising that distracted driving incidents and accidents are currently on the increase, despite the clear dangers to the driver and fellow motorists.
By Danielle Estrella – Danielle Estrella works as a commercial driving instructor and always likes to take the chance to discuss hot topics like distracted driving with an online audience. She is a regular writer for a number of motoring-inspired websites.
- Published in Auto Safety, Driver Safety, Family Safety