AAA Mid-Atlantic joins the National Safety Council in observing “Distracted Driving Week” from June 9-13 to remind motorists of the safety risks that can occur when they’re not focused on the road while driving.

“Distracted driving can potentially occur from many factors inside a vehicle from something as simple as drinking your morning coffee while driving to work to outside factors such as an eye catching billboard on the side of the road,” comments Martha Mitchell Meade, Manager of Public and Government Affairs.

Distractions inside the vehicle can include adjusting the radio, eating or drinking, grooming, reading, passengers, pets, using a cell phone and other electronic devices such as PDAs, GPS devices, satellite radio controllers and on-board DVD players.

Distractions outside the vehicle can include crash scenes, billboards, pedestrians, bicyclists, other passenger vehicles (e.g. an exotic car), and emergency vehicles.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved driver inattention within three seconds of the crash.

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and VTTI, drivers are about two times more likely to be involved in a crash when looking away from the roadway for two seconds or longer, which has been dubbed ‘The Rule of Two’.

Driving while distracted affects a driver in three ways:

- Perception: Drivers are less likely to perceive important traffic events when distracted (i.e. less likely to see a child run into the street after a ball)

- Judgment: Distractions slow the speed at which drivers make decisions (i.e. it takes longer for the driver to determine what to do to avoid the child)

- Action: Distractions reduce the driver’s ability to execute evasive maneuvers, if needed (i.e. leaning to retrieve something or attend to children in the backseat could physically delay a driver’s ability to swerve or brake)

Americans realize that distracted driving is a serious issue and have even admitted to being a distracted driver. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s 2008 Traffic Safety Culture index, 82 percent of drivers rated distracted driving as a serious problem. Over half of those same drivers, 53 percent, later admitted that they have talked on their cell phone while driving and 14 percent admitted they had read or sent a text message while driving in the past 30 days.

Following aggressive and drunk drivers, distracted drivers are the third highest safety concerns of AAA members according to the auto club’s annual members’ opinion survey released February 2008.

AAA Mid-Atlantic recommends the following tips to avoid distractions while driving:

- Driving requires your full attention – always stay focused on the road

- Before you get behind the wheel, familiarize yourself with the vehicle’s features (especially important when using an unfamiliar vehicle such as a rental car)

- Secure items that may move around when the car is in motion, such as briefcases, purses, children’s toys or cell phones

- Avoid smoking, eating, drinking and reading while driving

- Pull safely off the road when you need to attend to children in the vehicle

- Do your personal grooming at home, not in the car

- Review maps or enter information into GPS devices before getting on the road

- Ask a passenger to help you with activities that may be distracting