Students Against Distracted Driving

Haley WesterkampAlison BrokawMadeline Wright Tevien Pinckney

What is Distracted Driving? The practice of operating a motor

vehicle while engaged in another activity

Examples Cell Phone Eating Drinking GPS Etc.

4 Types of DistractionsVisual DistractionsManual DistractionsCognitive DistractionsAudio Distractions

Visual DistractionWhen your eyes are taken off the road while driving for any reason

Manual DistractionsWhen your hands are taken off the wheel while driving for any reason

Cognitive DistractionWhen your brain activity is being used for something else other than driving

Audio DistractionWhen any sound takes attention away from the road while driving for any reason

Our CultureAmericans place too much emphasis on multitasking

Americans also overestimate their ability to multitask

Cell Phone Statistics

American Teenage TrendsDrivers in their 20’s make up

27% of the distracted drivers in fatal crashes.

At any given moment, about 660,000 drivers are using an electronic device while driving.

American Teenage Trends25% of teens respond to a

text message once or more every time they drive.

20% of teens and 10% of parents, admit to having extended, multi-message text conversations while driving.

Laws on Distracted Driving Texting and Driving is prohibited in

44 states Not Banned: Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri,

Montana, Oklahoma, Texas

Hand-Held Cell Phone use is prohibited in 14 states

No state bans all cell-phone use while driving Novice drivers School bus drivers

Laws on Distracted Driving Bans are only effective for around four

months Hand-held bans are more effective for

adults Primary enforcement laws are more

effective Bans have not significantly reduced

teen use of mobile devices

Hands-Held vs. Hands-Free Hands-held devices

Trending toward being banned Stigma of being more dangerous than

Hands-Free Hands-free

No state has a ban on Hands-Free Companies and government officials

can ban workers from using Hands-Free

New York Times Distracted Driving Simulator

New York TImes Guaging Your Distraction

Multitasking Not PossibleBrain can only completely

focus on one task at a timeTakes time to switch attention

between tasksSelect Process Encode

Store Retrieve Execute

Primary VS. Secondary Tasks

Primary Task – the task requiring your full attention Pot on the front burner

Secondary Task – the concurrent task requiring equal attention Pot on the back burner

You decide which is most important

Pie chart

Driving

Texting

Make-up

Music

GPS

Eating

Talking

Other

Reaction Times Conversations slow your reflexes

cognitively because your mind is switching its primary focus

Your brain processes danger at a slower rate

76% of accidents involving a cell phone the conversation was only 2 minutes or less

Video

Distracted Driving Video

References http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/Distracte

d_Driving/Documents/Cognitive%20Distraction%20White%20Paper.pdf

http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

http://enddd.org/research-stats/#r9 http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-t

he-facts/facts-and-statistics.html

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199702133360701

Questions?