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Cape Town - A study found that in the US, 69-million motorists use their phone behind the wheel every day.
In South Africa, scenes like this, from a hard-hitting video by the Western Cape Department of Transport, are all too common, especially when coupled with the fact that an estimated 1 in 4 accidents are caused by something equally distracting: texting and driving.
With this in mind, South Africans are urged to take a very serious look at these sobering statistics from recent research and make drastic changes to their driving behaviour.
Zendrive’s 2018 Distracted Driving Snapshot, the most comprehensive driving behaviour research study to date, involved an app-based analysis of more than 16-billion km worth of driving behaviour.
The research in 2017 and 2018 found the following:
• At any given hour, 40% of motorists use their phones at least once.
• Overall, motorists use their phones for an average of 1-minute, 52-seconds of every hour behind the wheel.
• Motorists use their phones 88 out of 100 trips.
• Taking your eyes off the road increases your chances of collision by more than 20 times.
• Don’t overestimate your own luck or abilities just because you’ve called and texted without incident. According to an article by Time, drivers ignore the warnings because, wrongfully, “they’re just not convinced that it’s all that dangerous”.
• The one time you do get it wrong could cost someone their life, which could see you spending most of yours behind bars.
• Never text and drive or browse the web and social media behind the wheel. If you absolutely have to, pull over in a safe spot to do so, or use an app that allows you to dictate what you need to type.
• For phone calls, invest in a hands-free device that can be engaged without major distraction.
• Install an app that blocks you from texting or taking calls whilst driving, place your phone out of reach or activate flight mode.
• If you use a GPS, then follow the voice-activated directions.
Distracted driving is not limited to phone use. Here are some other tips to keep you safe: - List by Dial Direct
• Tune your radio or media player before you get into the car and insert any music you want to listen to before leaving home.
• Avoid eating and drinking behind the wheel.
• Keep your kids occupied with electronic devices or sing-a-long CDs of their favourite music and snacks so that they don’t distract you while on the road.
• If something falls into the foothold while you are driving then leave it there until you reach your destination.
• Powerful stats from the largest ever study on driving behaviour
• Motorists use phones for 88/100 trips,
• Motorists use their phones for 1m 52s per hour of driving
• 40% of motorists use their mobile phone at least once
• Accident risk increases 20x with distracted driving
• A hard-hitting video by the Western Cape Department of Transport.
• At 86km/h, when you read and reply to a message within 10 seconds, you travel the distance of more than 2 rugby fields without your eyes on the road.
• 10 practical tips to avoid distraction when driving – focusing both on mobile devices and other leading distractions.
