According to the state department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there were almost 50,000 crashes involving distracted driving in Florida, in 2016, which is more than five crashes every hour.
When most people hear the term “distracted driving,” they think it is referring to using their phone while driving. And while texting or even talking on the phone is dangerously distracting to someone who is driving, these are not the only activities that can distract you while your full attention should be on the road. There are essentially three different types of distracted driving:
Manual distractions
These are distractions that require you to take your hand and your eyes off the wheel. For example, eating or drinking in the car is a manual distraction. You might be only distracted from the road for a fraction of a second while you grab a drink of water, but if you are trying to eat a full meal while trying to drive, you are probably going to be distracted for dozens of minutes.
Visual distractions
This type of distraction occurs when you take your eyes off of the road, either to look at something in your car or on the side of the road you are driving down. For example, if you have to look at the passenger’s seat every time you want to pick up and eat a fry, you are visually distracted from the task at hand. There are lots of things that can visually distract you, from your phone buzzing in a cup holder, to trying to find your water bottle, etc.
Cognitive distractions
These are distractions that take your mind away from the task at hand. You might start thinking about something you need to do for work or what you are going to eat for dinner when you get home, and before you know it, you are paying more attention to your thoughts than you are to driving. If you’ve ever driven blocks and blocks and can’t really remember how you got where you are, you’ve probably been cognitively distracted.
Texting and talking on the phone actually fall into all three of these categories, which is part of what makes it so dangerous and one of the most hyped-on forms of distracted driving. It is not, however, the only dangerous thing that people do while driving their car. Here are some of the other common forms of distracted driving:
Eating while driving – It might not seem like that big of a deal to eat while driving, but because it requires you to take at least one hand off of the wheel, it can actually be very dangerous. You are occupied doing something that is not driving and you only have one hand on the wheel. This can seriously impede your reaction time if a road hazard were suddenly to appear. And while you might not always be taking your eyes off the road to eat something, you often will be, which makes this not just a manual, but also a visual distraction.
Grooming – If you’ve ever seen someone putting on makeup or doing their hair in their car, you have seen someone who is driving distractedly. Most people will only try to perform these activities at a stop light or stop sign, but they can still be slow to respond to changes in road conditions. And plenty of people do try to put on makeup while actually driving, which is extremely dangerous.
Adjusting your electronics – Yes, even changing your radio stations can be distracting enough that it can be dangerous. This is why many car manufacturers have started to put the controls right on the steering wheel, as well as on the console, so that they can be adjusted without taking your hand off the wheel or your eyes off the road.
