Distracted Driving
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distraction is anything that diverts the driver's attention from the primary tasks of navigating the vehicle and responding to critical events. Driver safety is impaired whenever these three types of distraction occur while driving:
- Visual distraction - takes your eyes off the road. Examples include: looking at dashboard, texting on a cell phone, reading a map, or looking for address.
- Cognitive distraction - takes your mind off the road. Examples include: day dreaming, drowsiness, talking on a cell phone, or moving animals.
- Manual distraction - takes your hands off the wheel. Examples include: eating, drinking, smoking, texting on a cell phone, or changing radio station.
So when you think about tasks that can be a driving distraction, you can see that they often fit into more than one category: eating is visual and manual, whereas using a navigation system is all three.
There are two basic components of the distraction safety problem:
- The attentional demands of the distracting task, and
- The frequency with which drivers choose to multitask.
Task demands relate to the amount of resources (visual, cognitive, manual) required to perform the task. The other issue is exposure, which is how often drivers engage in the task. Putting those two concepts together, even an easy task can be a bigger safety problem if the person does the task 50% of their driving time.
You can use this NHTSA sample company Distracted Driving Policy to develop a policy for your company.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
3-4. Which of the following is an example of visual distraction while driving?
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