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Giving Up Distracted Driving: Expert Tips for Ignoring Your Phone
August 10, 2022
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Giving Up Distracted Driving: Expert Tips for Ignoring Your Phone

The most effective approach to minimizing distracted driving accidents is to pay attention when driving. Using a mobile device while driving can make all the difference. Using such a gadget while driving can be fatal. Even while texting and driving are illegal in many states and localities, it hasn’t made much of a difference. The US Department of Transportation reported over 3,000 fatalities and over 400,000 injuries due to distracted driving.

Diverse behaviors can be classified as distracted driving. All of these activities, including using a cell phone, texting, and eating while driving, might be seen as distractions. Your focus may be diverted from the road even merely by talking to the driver or dealing with the children in the backseat who are making noise. While it may seem like a nice idea, using a hands-free device does not make much of a difference.

Studies have shown that when your focus is elsewhere, you look but do not truly see. During research by an insurance provider. Even voice-activated devices divert your focus from the road. Even the notice of an incoming text or email might cause attention to be diverted at a crucial moment.

Dangers of Cell Phone Use While Driving

Cell phones have evolved into a highly popular technology over the last several decades. Additionally, technology has improved, and mobile phones are now the most popular form of communication. Every day, more people want cell phones. Additionally, wireless technology is widely available and relatively inexpensive, making it accessible to everyone. They come in a variety of sizes and forms. They range from dark gray to gleaming metallic white. Cell phone usage among American citizens is rising daily.

Cell phone use while driving will rise along with the overall use of mobile devices on our roads and highways. The same number of drivers still talks on their phones and send texts while they are on the road. Apart from driving, drivers will also do other things. As an example, drivers often text and make phone calls while operating a vehicle.

Drivers will take calls and hold lengthy conversations with the caller. Again, chatting on the phone requires concentration, and driving requires your whole attention. However, it necessitates the driver’s attention being diverted to the talk, which results in less focus on the road. On the contrary, one might draw a connection between distracted driving and auto accidents.

But both hand-held and hands-free phones may be quite uncomfortable. When it comes to keeping the driver’s attention off the condition of the road, they both serve the same objective.

It’s a good thing that there are several tips available to assist you to break the habit. You can quit texting while driving if you’re committed to it and give it some practice; you’ll be doing yourself and everybody on the road a benefit.

A Few Tips To Prevent Getting Distracted Behind The Wheel

 

  • Look for anti-texting resources via your phone carrier.

Insights, how-tos, and participation in anti-texting campaigns may all be found in cell phone service providers. Most of them are in favor of federal and state laws that prohibit texting while driving. When driving, they advise consumers to put their phones down and wait until they get to their destination before picking them back up. Inquire about beneficial tools that can assist you in stopping texting while driving by visiting your carrier’s website or calling the information line.

  • Utilize the benefit of Driving Mode

Driving mode turns off the phone’s ability to accept calls, messages, and other features like Facebook and games while retaining access to the navigation system and emergency communications. Unfortunately, the majority of phones lack a proper driving mode. While some phones do offer a driving mode, it is only a feature that reads emails or texts aloud. This may also serve as a diversion.

The insurance companies may provide a discount to drivers who purchase a Driving Mode function for their phones as an easy way to encourage them to utilize such a system. This straightforward technique may be made more popular and acceptable with a financial incentive. Anything to reduce the number of accidents involving distracted driving. It may even save your life.

  • Download an app that prevents texting while driving.

You might attempt to download one of the numerous applications available that prevent texting and other activities while driving. While driving, some applications are intended to simply turn off the phone, while others automatically respond to texts and calls. Additionally, there are applications that let parents remotely lock their teen’s phone while she is operating a motor vehicle.

Some of the more well-known applications include Drivesafe.ly, which reads your messages aloud as audio and auto-responds without you having to touch your phone, and SafeDrive, which gives you points for avoiding texting while driving that you can use for discounts at participating stores. Look through the App Store or Google Play for apps that could be useful to you.

  • Make a family commitment to refrain from texting and driving.

Making a commitment to your family will help you stay more dedicated to your decision to quit texting while driving. Your spouse and children can hold you responsible. This is especially crucial if you have a teenage driver at home since your determination to refrain from using your phone while driving will serve as an example for her. Your teen is watching you, even if you don’t believe she does, and she will follow your example.

Hold a family gathering and resolve to put the phone away when the driver is in the seat. Include penalties for violations. Post the agreement in a visible place at home with everyone’s signatures. You have the option of creating your own contract or using one of the many that are publicly accessible online, such as this one provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

  • Physically put your phone away.

To avoid looking overly simplistic, have you tried placing your phone in a spot where you cannot use it while driving? It may be rather tempting to simply pick it up for a “glance” at a text, whether it is on your console or in the passenger seat. However, just a single glimpse might be fatal. According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, reading a paragraph takes five seconds. At 55 mph, this is equivalent to driving the length of a football field without looking up. A deadly collision only takes a minor amount of that time.

As a remedy, turn the phone off or onto airplane mode before getting behind the wheel and tuck it away in the trunk. You won’t be tempted to send an SMS if it is out of reach. After all, no social media post or text message is worth a life. Whatever it is can wait till you get there.

  • Let a passenger text for you.

Pull over to securely use your phone on lengthy travels or other situations when having it on and close by is genuinely appropriate (such as when navigating, in an emergency, etc.), or ask your passenger to help send a text. Most customers are more than willing to use your phone while you are driving, especially because their lives are in your hands.

  • Focus on the road

We agree with safety advocates who recommend limiting phone use. Good tools can keep you safe, but using common sense yourself will go a long way towards lowering your risk. Put driving first in your priorities. Don’t try to use your phone when you need to concentrate on anything else, even if you simply use voice commands or sometimes click a button or two. Wait a moment before merging, approaching a junction, passing a car, or navigating a crowded roadway.

And if you need to do something that can’t be done with a quick button push or voice command—such as searching up an address, creating a playlist, or setting up an audio book—do it before you start driving or after you locate a safe spot to pull over. Making a Smartphone accessible and taking precautions when using it can help prevent it from turning into a fatal distraction. We believe Smartphone can be useful tools in cars, just like stereos and navigation systems can.

Conclusion

 

Every motorist and passenger hopes to arrive at their destination without accident. However, using your phone while driving and reading or responding to a text might endanger everyone’s safety. So, put an end to texting while driving. It is deadly.

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