Distracted Driving Deaths & Impaired Driving Deaths: How Bad Is It?
#AskRobertGabor
According to the OPP, the amount of distracted driving deaths we’ve seen recently has trumped the amount of deaths being reported from impaired driving, which is absolutely crazy. This means that people who are completely fine behind the wheel are dying, simply because they aren’t paying enough attention. Those that are driving drunk and high on a plethora of drugs are seeing a lesser number of deaths, then the ones that are playing Pokemon GO on the highway. It’s a large hazard that often gets overlooked, because we believe that the average person can practice common sense. You don’t need to be looking at your phone while driving, and there’s absolutely nothing else that you should consider giving your attention to (as opposed to driving itself). In Ontario, just last month, there were around 38 deaths attributed to distracted driving. When you compare this to the 19 that died due to impaired driving, it’s quite shocking; it’s essentially twice the amount of deaths. For people charged with distracted driving, the number has swelled up to over 8,800 – meaning that this is a problem which is only going to keep growing and growing.
It’s an epidemic that needs to be accounted for, before things grow desperate. Police all over Canada, including Ontario, have been alerted to the frequency of these deaths, and have been cracking down on distracted drivers as a result. It’s a matter of changing the drivers attitude, which isn’t exactly easy – you would never get into the car with somebody who was drunk, but what about someone you knew was going to be distracted? When they aren’t looking at the road (even for a few seconds), they may as well be drunk and driving behind the wheel.
The full-out assault that police forces have embarked upon hasn’t lead to many changes, as drivers are still constantly driving distracted. It’s a very serious problem, and one of the easiest ways to change it would be to talk to your loved ones. If you know somebody is prone to checking their phone while driving, call them out on it. If they say that it’s no big deal, bring up the statistics – people who are distracted driving are at twice the amount of risk as a drunk driver. That information alone should be enough to persuade them in your direction. If it isn’t, that’s just evidence of how hard it can be to change the attitudes of drivers.