Added on June 12, 2019  The News Wheel  distracted driver , distracted driving , distracted driving habits , texting and driving

How to Avoid the Dangers of Distracted Driving

Whether or not you’re an experienced driver, you should understand that accidents can happen anywhere and anytime. You might be driving perfectly attentively and practicing safe driving and still get in an accident due to bad luck or reckless driving by someone else. However, more often than not, most of these accidents are avoidable.

Distracted driving has to be one of the leading causes of traffic collisions in the United States. Sure enough, at least nine people die every day due to distracted driving each day, making it a serious issue that teenagers as well as adults will have to address.

Considering this, you will need to do everything you can to stay focused on the road and keep distractions to a minimum, or even eliminate them completely.

Here are a few tips to reduce distractions and avoid a fatal accident from happening.

1. Never use your smartphone

Of course, the first thing you will have to stop is your habit of using your smartphone while you’re behind the wheel. You just can’t divide your attention between keeping yourself focused on the road and having a casual chat with a friend. As much as possible, you may want to pull over or wait until you reach your destination. A good exception is when you have to make or receive an emergency call, but even here you should only ever do this after coming to a complete stop.

2. Keep the music low

The open highway makes for a great atmosphere for cranking the volume up on your favourite songs. Then again, you might want to avoid using earphones or at least keep the volume down. For best results, you might want to turn off the music altogether. You still need to keep your ears open for incoming vehicles that blare courtesy horns.

3. Avoid hands-free devices

“I’m using a bluetooth earpiece. How likely will I get hit while driving?” Well, hands-free devices can also give a considerable amount of distraction. Motor vehicle accident lawyers still agree that using such devices won’t prevent an accident from happening. Ever watched the film Dr. Strange? Even though the titular character was totally using a hands-free device, it didn’t actually spare him from a debilitating accident.

4. Don’t go overboard with your dashboard decoration

It’s always nice to have a bobblehead on the dashboard, but displaying too many knick knacks like hanging dream catchers will hamper your view of the road. When it comes to defensive driving, you would want to keep your dashboard decorations to a minimum.

5. Avoid eating and drinking while driving

It’s a no-brainer that drinking alcoholic beverages will result in serious accidents. But what about non-alcoholic drinks like sodas and sweetened beverages? Well, you might want to avoid drinking them. If you feel really thirsty, you can stop at a red light and drink your beverage on the spot. When it comes to eating, on the other hand, it’s best that you do so before and after driving.

6. Whatever you do, DO NOT MULTITASK

Multitasking is a great way to save time, but your vehicle isn’t the best place to do that. No matter how hectic your schedule is, settle everything you need to do outside the vehicle.

Traffic fatalities are mostly avoidable. We just have to do our part in securing ourselves, our passengers, and other motorists from the dangers that distracted driving entails.

This is a collaborative article.