April is Distracted Driver Awareness Month. Hang Up & Drive…It Could Save Your Life.
Using cell phones while driving…it’s easy to just tell people to stop doing it, but it’s more complicated than that. For many people, these are deeply imbedded habits that are hard to change. For others, there is the anxiety of possibly missing important business opportunities or personal messages. To be successful, a change of mindset and a commitment to safe driving is needed. To help with these, I am offering the following tips:
- Tell everyone you know, family, friends, coworkers, and customers that you are committed to safe driving and will not use your device while driving. This will eliminate the expectation of an immediate response and reduce the stress involved.
- There are device settings and numerous apps that will block incoming calls, texts, and emails and send an automatic reply while your vehicle is in motion. Your family, friends, and customers will respect your commitment to safety.
- Silence your device or turn it off so you do not receive any notifications while driving. Simply hearing a notification tone can cause you to be mentally distracted. Airplane mode works well.
- Store your device out of reach while driving so you are not tempted to check it while stopped at red lights. Looking at your phone while stopped at red lights is dangerous because you have no situational awareness during that time.
- If you are concerned with missing calls or messages, allow extra time during your drive to stop to safely check your phone at various times.
- Hands free options and use of Bluetooth do not eliminate the cognitive distraction that is most distracting. Research has shown that driving while having a remote conversation is as dangerous as drunk driving.
- If you are a business owner, you are exposed to huge liability if one of your workers is at fault in a collision due to distracted driving. Enact and vigorously enforce zero tolerance policies that do not allow for any use of devices except for navigation.
- If using your device for navigation, program it prior to driving, and follow the voice prompts without looking at it.
Communication that truly demands an immediate response is very rare. Hang up and drive. A choice you make while driving can change your life forever.
To learn more about Distracted Driving and driving safer, please consider taking a Defensive Driving course.
Ed Taube, Safety Trainer, Arizona Chapter National Safety Council