Because April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, your agency may already be conducting enhanced enforcement of existing laws on use of cellular telephones while driving (if not, perhaps you can bring it up with the brass). In addition to those efforts, police officers are in a very unique position to also do informal outreach to motorists about the dangers of distracted driving.
During some citizen contacts — while ensuring you are tactically sound and safe — you may have the opportunity to talk with drivers about the fact that distracted driving can and does kill innocent victims. According to the US Department of Transportation, 3,328 people were killed in distracted driving crashes in 2012 alone.
Here are some other helpful facts to know and tell.
The NHTSA estimates 21 percent of all crashes in 2010 involved talking on cell phones — accounting for 1.1 million vehicle collisions that year. A minimum of three percent of those collisions are estimated to involve texting.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that nine percent of all drivers at any given time are using cell phones, and the National Safety Council estimates about one in four motor vehicle crashes involve cell phone use at the time of the crash.
A few states have passed legislation making it illegal to use a handheld cell phone while driving, but those laws can give the false impression that using a hands-free phone is safe. Hands-free devices often are seen as a solution to the risks of driver distraction because they help eliminate two obvious risks:
• visual, looking away from the road and
• manual, removing your hands off of the steering wheel
However, a third type of distraction can occur when using cell phones while driving
• cognitive, taking your mind off the road
Most people can recognize when they are visually or mechanically distracted and seek to disengage from these activities as quickly as possible. However, people typically do not realize when they are cognitively distracted, such as taking part in a phone conversation; therefore, the risk lasts much, much longer. This likely explains why researchers have not been able to find a safety benefit to hands-free phone conversations.
Finally, while mobile phone distracted driving has become a serious public health threat, that’s not the only threat. GPS navigation systems and MP3 music players are also distractions.
During every citizen contact, your safety is paramount. You cannot let talking about distracted driving become a distraction from being tactically on target. But cops can — and do — have thousands of dialogs with ordinary citizens every day. This may be a good topic of conversation at some point for you during the month of April.
