Over twenty percent of all injury accidents in 2009 could be directly attributed to distracted driving. When most people hear the term “distracted driving,” they immediately think of cell phone use and texting while driving. The truth is, there are a variety of distractions which drivers encounter on a daily basis, and there are different types of distraction as well. A visual distraction occurs when you are driving and take your eyes off the road, whether for a second or a longer period of time. Manual distraction occurs when you are engaged in exhibiting a negative hand gesture to another driver and your hand or hands are removed from the wheel.

A cognitive distraction occurs when a driver is “spaced out,” thinking about a problem in their life, or an upcoming vacation—anything other than the road ahead and the drivers surrounding them. A parent who turns around to holler and grab the child’s leg who has been kicking the seat for the past ten minutes is suffering from all three types of distraction—a very dangerous combination. Texting also involves all three types of distractions, which is why it has been found to be so deadly. When you engage in texting, your hand is off the wheel, your eyes are off the road, and your mind is on the text you are sending, or the person you are sending it to, rather than your driving.

Other Common Distractions

While cell phones can certainly be deadly, there are other distractions that are dangerous as well. How many of us routinely eat and drink while driving? What happens when your taco drips on your brand new skirt, and you first take your hand off the wheel to try and “catch” the taco sauce, your eyes leave the road as your survey the damage, and your mind is on how you will get your skirt cleaned off and still get to work on time. You’ve just committed another three-way distraction no-no, and in that very few seconds when your mind, hand and eyes are away from the task of driving, an accident can happen.

What about talking to the passengers in your car, sometimes even turning around to talk? Yes, many of us have been guilty of this at one time or another. If you live in the city, you have likely seen women applying makeup or combing their hair while driving; in fact some women routinely use the drive to work to take care of such tasks. Visitors to a new area can often be seen reading a map which is spread out across the steering wheel while driving down the road. Fiddling with a GPS system, radio station or CD player are common as well.

In other words, most all of us who have been driving for any length of time are guilty of at least one of these distraction no-no’s. Parents, especially those of small children, have even more levels of distraction. The baby is crying in the back seat and you turn around to see why. The kids are fighting in the back seat and your turn around to threaten or cajole. While all of these things are “normal,” per se, they are still extremely unsafe behaviors which can lead to serious or even fatal car accidents.

The Research on Cell Phones

So, as you can see there are lots of ways you may find yourself driving in a distracted manner, however cell phone use and texting still top the list for distractions which cause serious accidents. Of all of those people who were killed in a distracted driving crash, almost twenty percent involved cell phone use. The under-twenty age group had the highest levels of distracted driving, and astonishingly, using a cell phone while driving can delay the driver’s reactions as much as having a BAC concentration over the legal limit of .08 percent.  The bottom line is that any type of distracted driving is dangerous, and potentially fatal. If you are the victim of a crash caused by a distracted driver, it is important that you get legal advice and discuss your options.