Distracted driving is one of the many factors
for the occurrence of motor vehicle crashes and their resulting injuries and
deaths among drivers, passengers, and other road users in the United States.
Aside from driving while being intoxicated, as well as driving recklessly and
aggressively, being distracted while driving has always been linked to a lot of
fatalities in vehicle crashes in the nation.
In fact, people who died in
distraction-affected crashes increased in 2011 by 1.9 percent, from 3,267 in
2010 to 3,331 the next year. However, the number of injuries in the same
crashes otherwise decreased by 7 percent, from an estimated 416,000 people in
2010 to approximately 387,000 people the next year.
The use of cell phones while driving, as well
as fidgeting on the car stereo and picking up something off the car floor, are
some of the common distractions that could lead to an accident on the road. Even
daydreaming
is considered a distraction while driving; in fact, a study revealed that
doing so is even more dangerous than the common distracted driving-related
activities.
A Yahoo!
Autos article shed some light with regards to the dangers of daydreaming
for drivers. According to the article, a study made by the researchers from the
Erie Insurance Group found that 1 in 10 were due to using cell phones or doing other
activities while driving.
Surprisingly, of the more than 65,000 fatal
crashes from 2010 to 2011 analyzed in the study, it was found that about 62
percent of them were daydreaming; five times as many as talking or texting with
someone using a cell phone. Said statistics were taken from the Fatality
Analysis Reporting System (FARS) of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA).
