Distracted driving has become a national epidemic. In June, the State of Georgia became the most recent state to pass texting and cell phone bills into law. Georgia is the thirteenth state this year to pass legislation in an attempt to reduce the number of distracted while driving accidents. Take a look at 2010 New Cell Phone / Texting Driving Laws for a recap of states to pass such legislation.
Tips To Help You Reduce Distracted Driving Injuries
- Refresh your safe driving program. If you don't have one, create one now!
- Institute a "no texting or cell phone use while driving" policy.
- Educate your employees about your safe driving practices. Include every delivery truck driver, salesperson, any employee who drives a company car, or any employee who drives their personal car on company business.
- Practice and enforce your safe driving policies.
- Download DriveSafe.ly NOW! It's Free. This mobile application reads text messages and emails aloud in real time and can automatically respond without drivers touching their mobile phones.
Also, read 15 Tips to Reduce Distracted Driving Injuries, as seen on the Workers' Comp Kit Blog.
Distracted Driving Statistics
Some highlights of distracted driving statistics as reported on Distraction.gov include:
- In 2008, there were a total of 34,017 crashes with 37,261 fatalities
- In 2008, 5,870 people (16% of total fatalities) were killed in crashes involving driver distraction
- Drivers distracted at the time of fatal crashes has increased from 8 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2008
- The under-20 age group had the highest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal crashes (16%); the next highest proportion of distracted drivers was the 20- to 29-year old age group (12%)
- Motorcyclists and drivers of light trucks had the highest percentage of distracted drivers at the time of fatal crashes (12%)
- An estimated 21% of 1,630,000 injury crashes were reported to have involved distracted driving
2nd Annual Distracted Driving Summit Planned
A second annual national summit will take place in Washington, DC in September to address the distracted driving epidemic. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the summit in a press release last week. The summit plans to bring together experts from around the country to explore the current challenges and identify public outreach solutions to the problem.
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