DISTRACTED DRIVING

Drivers who are engaged in distractions are more likely to be in a crash or near-crash compared with non-distracted drivers.

Text messaging (or texting) on a cellphone, 23 times more likely. (Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 2010.)

Talking on a cellphone, four to five times more likely.

Dialing on a hand-held device, three times more likely.

Talking or listening on a handheld device, 1.3 times more likely.

Using your hand-held communication device takes you away from the primary task of driving. Driving requires your full attention at all times.

Distracted driving fatalities in Ontario surpassed both impaired driving-related and speed-related fatalities in 2013. (Ontario Provincial Police.)

Teen driver collisions are the leading cause of permanent injuries and deaths in Canada. More fatally injured 16- to 19-year-old distracted drivers are male than female. (Traffic Injury Research Foundation.)

43 per cent of drivers in Grade 12 admit to texting behind the wheel (2013 Ontario Student Drug and Health Survey).

37 per cent of teens report being a passenger in a car with a parent who was talking on a cellphone (2013 Ontario Student Drug and Health Survey).

23 per cent reported being a passenger in a car with a parent who was texting while driving (2013 Ontario Student Drug and Health Survey).

40 per cent of collisions in Ottawa in 2013 involved distracted driving. (City of Ottawa, 2014.)

Between 2009 and 2013, distracted-driving collisions resulted in 6,463 injuries and 18 fatalities in Ottawa. (City of Ottawa, 2014.)

HOW DISTRACTIONS DELAY A DRIVER’S REACTION TIME:

It takes an attentive driver 1.5 seconds to react to a situation on the roadway. When drivers are distracted, reaction time is doubled. At 100 km/h, that’s like travelling the distance of a football field without looking.

The additional 1.5 seconds it takes an inattentive driver to react to hazards or changing conditions on the roadway could be the difference between safely avoiding them and hitting something or someone.

You must focus on your driving at all times, even when stopped at traffic lights. Using the phone while you are stopped still prevents you from seeing what is happening around you.

Driving distracted has the same impact on your reaction time as consuming four alcoholic drinks and getting behind the wheel.