Even small things can be distracting, and there are quick, easy tips we can use to avoid becoming distracted while driving. Practices such as mindfulness (though not meditation) and single tasking can assist with keeping your mind on the road while driving.
Our time, and that of our loved ones, is precious, yet it seems to fly by and sometimes we arrive home without being able to remember some aspect of our trip. If you drove home, this is related to one of the three forms of distracted driving:
We’re all susceptible to distraction from time to time. When this occurs while we are driving, it can delay the time it takes us to perceive and react to a safety critical event. This delay may contribute to a crash in which someone dies or is injured.
Practices such as mindfulness (though not meditation) and single tasking can assist with keeping your mind on the road while driving. These practices can also help with keeping your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel while driving.
While distraction can be difficult to identify and research, evidence from a large naturalistic driving study[1] indicates some of the riskiest secondary tasks to engage in while driving include:
Driving simulator and on-road studies[2] have found engagement in a secondary task while driving is associated with decreased driving performance, including:
You may have engaged in secondary tasks while driving without experiencing a negative consequence, but road conditions and other road users can be unpredictable. Even a small increase the time it takes a driver to become aware of and react to a safety critical event can result in road trauma. An in-depth study of crashes occurring in NSW and Victoria from 2000 to 2011 found driver distraction contributed to 16% (54/340) of injury crashes resulting in at least one hospitalisation.[3]
It can be the tiniest thing that distracts you. With National Road Safety Week 16 to 23 May 2021, it is a great time to create and embed a new safety habit in your driving routine. Here are some quick tips we can use every drive to avoid becoming distracted:
Ask friends, family, and passengers to support any new habits you create to reduce the likelihood of your becoming distracted while driving and help make sure you and others arrive home safely. They might be motivated to do the same!
[1] Dingus et al., 2016, US Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2)
[2] Bayly, Young, & Regan, 2008; Horberry & Edquist, 2008; Cunningham, Regan, & Imberger, 2017; Caird et al., 2018
[3] Beanland et al., 2013, Australian In-Depth Crash Study
To learn more about how our Transport Safety team can help you, get in touch here.