Legislatively Speaking
By Senator, Lena C. Taylor
State Senator Lena C. Taylor
On October 25th, I held the Distracted Driving Awareness Event in conjunction with Red Ribbon Week.
The Red Ribbon Campaign’s mission is to raise healthy, drug free youth, through awareness, advocacy, and prevention resources.
Red Ribbon Week is a week-long campaign across the United States organized by the National Family Partnership with the goal to raise awareness of the destruction caused by drugs in America.
This week aims to mobilize communities to educate youth and encourage participation in drug prevention activities.
The Distracted Driving Awareness Event had participants use golf cart simulators to demonstrate the effects distracted driving has on motorists, as well as witness a mock crash, funeral, and court proceeding.
The purpose of the event was to create awareness of the dangers of distracted driving amongst the community, particularly the youth.
Distracted driving is a dangerous and widely prevalent problem in this country.
According to the Center for Disease Control, nearly one in five crashes in 2011, in which someone was injured, involved distracted driving.
31% of U.S. drivers ages 18-64 reported that they had read or sent text messages or email messages while driving, and 69% of drivers in the United States of the same age group reported that they had talked on their cell phone while driving.
Both of these questions referred to the act taking place within the 30 days before they were surveyed.
While awareness is needed for all age groups, it is especially imperative we reach the younger demographic.
Studies show that our youth are at an increased risk.
Inexperienced drivers under the age of 20 make up the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes.
In 2012, the Ad Council found that 42% of young adult drivers are very/ somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving; and 71% of teens and young people say they have composed/sent text messages while driving.
While the risks associated with texting and driving are well-known and straightforward – a car crash, which can cause death or injury – the statistics associated with these risks are much more telling.
A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study showed that engaging in tasks such as reaching for a phone, dialing, and texting triples the risk of getting into a crash.
The VTTI also found that five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field – blindfolded. Finally, here are some tips on how to avoid texting while driving from the NHTSA and Ad Council:
• Out of sight, out of mind: When you’re in the car, put your phone where you can’t get it. A place where you won’t even be tempted to look for it. No phone. No texting
• Silence is golden: Turn those notifications off. The less you hear your phone, the less tempted you’ll be to respond while you’re driving.
• Find your app: An app can help you stop texting and driving. Download your favorite and forget about it in the car.
• Designate a texter: Borrow thumbs from a friend. Or lend yours to a friend. Passengers get the privilege of texting while in motion.
It is my hope that with education and awareness we can have more and more drivers choose to put down their phones and avoid distractions, thereby reducing the number of deaths and injuries associated with distracted driving.
It is each individual driver’s responsibility to make our roads a safer means of travel for everyone.