Follow these tips to keep yourself and your passengers safe
All it takes is one split second, and life can change forever. When you’re behind the wheel and your eyes leave the road, you’re driving distracted, and that’s dangerous.
Driving should not be considered a secondary task; it should be your only task when you are behind the wheel.
Distracted driving doesn’t only include texting and driving. Distractions can be visual (eyes off the road), manual (hands off the road) or cognitive (mind off the road. Texting and talking on the phone are both mental and physical distractions, but account for only 18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes. The other 82% include an endless list of distractions, including putting on make-up, eating, changing music, reading a map or grabbing a drink. All of these are seemingly mundane activities that can change your life and the lives of others in an instant.
By following these tips, you and your family can reduce the risk of accidents related to distracted driving. Please share with your family, friends and anyone who will listen. Whatever you are doing in the car when you should be focusing on the road is not worth risking your life or another person’s life for.
Simple Steps for Safer Driving
(from the Casey Feldman Foundation, www.EndDD.org)
- Drive without sending or receiving texts.
- Call/text before driving to let parents, friends and others know when you’ll arrive. Pull over to a safe location to check texts or listen to voice mail.
- Deputize your passenger when you are driving to text or make calls for you.
- When alone, turn your cell phone off or on vibrate before starting to drive.
- Wait to text or call others until they have stopped driving.
- Stop texting, or end phone conversations with others once you learn they are driving. Pull over to a safe location or wait until you are finished driving to eat or apply make-up.
- Pull over to a safe location or wait until you are finished driving to adjust music, change CD’s, check Facebook, surf the internet, scroll through iPods, iPhones or similar devices.
- When being driven by a distracted driver, ask the driver to drive safer.
- As a passenger, share the responsibility for arriving safely with your driver and offer help so your driver does not drive distracted.
If you or someone you know has been in a car accident due to the negligence of a distracted driver and needs to speak with an attorney, please call Christopher Ligori & Associates at (877) 444-2929 or fill out our online form for 24/7 assistance.
For more information on how to prevent distracted driving, visit www.EndDD.org or view their student presentation here. If your school or organization would like to schedule a presentation by Christopher Ligori to address the topic of distracted driving, please call our office at (813) 223-2929.
