We’ve all seen them. Hell, we’ve all been them. Distracted drivers are everywhere, whether it’s a woman running late and putting on her makeup in the car or the guy who skipped lunch and is now scarfing down a double cheeseburger, these types of drivers are the ones that cause accidents.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 80% of crashes involved driver distraction. The risk is three times higher when the driver is fiddling with their cell phone and nine times higher when the driver is reaching for something (like that cell phone). Statistics show that 79% of drivers are distracted due to changing their radio stations or CDs and 51% are distracted because of their cell phone.
These examples are some of the more obvious distractions that can cause accidents, but there even some driver habits that will lead to crushed metal. Remember taking an eyeful of that accident to see if anyone was hurt or coming back from a daydream only to brake for no apparent reason? The driving habits some of us pick up can lead to an accident just as easily as if we were on the phone. The best way to overcome these habits is to fine tune our driving techniques. Don’t just keep your eyes on the road, keep your thoughts on the road as well. Then there’s the more obvious suggestions such as catching up with your best friend while sitting on the couch and not while you’re in the car or keeping up with the flow of traffic and not cranking your neck back to see what’s going on in the other car.
Check out the rest of the infographic to get more helpful driving techniques and statistics and remember to check back with us for the next installment in our Car Infographics series.
Car Infographics: Driving Habits and Distractions originally appeared on topspeed.com on Friday, 22 July 2011 19:00 EST.
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