8 Reasons to Put Down the Phone While Driving

Connectivity has become such a constant in our day-to-day lives that putting the cell phone down-even for a few minutes when driving-can feel like an exercise in deprivation. Yet when you look at the increase in vehicle and cell phone use projected for coming years, there’s a growing indication that distracted driving could also be on the rise, according to statistics from “Investing in Road Safety: A Global Imperative for the Private Sector,” by the Expert Panel of Together for Safer Roads.

By 2020, the number of vehicles in the world is expected to reach 2 billion, which is double the number accounted for in 2010, according to Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles (OICA), also known as the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. By that same year, 90 percent of people older than age six will have a cell phone. That’s 6.1 billion phones, or more than twice the number of phones that people had in 2014, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report, which analyzes mobile network data traffic.

To make our roads safer, it’s important that drivers put down the phone when they’re behind the wheel. Here’s why.

• Safety should be your priority. According to the report “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Texting on Driving,” published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, there is strong evidence that distracted driving, including text messaging while driving, is linked to crashes, deaths, and injuries on the road.

• Distracted driving is costly. The impact of distracted driving amounted to USD $129.5 billion in societal costs in the U.S. in 2010, according to the report “The True Cost of Road Crashes: Valuing Life and the Cost of a Serious Injury,” published by the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP).

• You’ll improve your focus on driving. Reading text messages interferes with drivers’ attention. That can negatively impact a person’s ability to respond quickly to occurrences on the road and control their own vehicle and speed, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report.

• You could save a life. In the U.S., 10 percent of road deaths stem from distracted driving, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report.

• Multi-tasking is a myth. While hands-free devices sound like a good solution, they still may contribute to distracted driving. It’s true that with a hand-free device, drivers can keep their eyes on the road, but merely talking on the phone may still contribute to “cognitive distraction,” or taking someone’s attention away from the task at hand, according to the American Journal of Public Health study, “Impact of Texting Laws on Motor Vehicular Fatalities in the United States.”

• Distracted driving deaths are on the rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. saw an increase of 9 percent in vehicle-related mortality from 2011 to 2012. In that year alone, 3,300 deaths and 421,000 injuries were related to distracted driving.

• It’s illegal. Municipalities where laws prohibit texting while driving have seen a 5 to 11 percent decrease in deaths among people ages 15 to 21, according to the report, “A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Texting on Driving,” published in Accident Analysis and Prevention.

• It’s our turn to take the wheel. Few countries have laws against distracted driving. That means the onus is on drivers, themselves, to take charge and put their focus fully where it belongs – on the road.