A new survey published by Online Auto Insurance has highlighted the dangers of distracted driving among Americans who talk or text on cell phones, and pointed out that more than one in every three drivers do it regardless of this fact.
Car crashes resulting from distracted driving behaviors are responsible for tens of thousands of lives each year and cost billions of dollars in lost property. Even the collisions that are less extreme that result from mobile phone use while driving can make it difficult for drivers who are at-fault to find affordable auto insurance policies.
The new survey performed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has shown that drivers maintain their distracted driving behaviors regardless of the fact that they know that there are serious risks involved in doing so.
In fact, the survey indicated that among all drivers, 35 percent are aware of the fact that there is a threat to safety when using a mobile phone to talk or text while behind the wheel, and yet 35 percent of those people admit that they still do it despite that knowledge.
Traffic and insurance authorities have been cautioning drivers for several years about the dangers of distracted driving, and that using a mobile device while driving is a serious form of distraction. Other common distracted behaviors include drinking or eating, changing radio stations, applying makeup, or even talking with other people in the vehicle.
Unfortunately, with the common use of mobile devices, the number of distracted driving hazards have increased and have become more common – as have the accidents relating to them. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), among all of the crashes resulting in an injury in 2009, 20 percent were connected with distracted driving. That year, there were 5,500 deaths from those collisions, which represents 16 percent of all of the fatalities on roadways in 2009.
