As the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety campaign takes off this year, the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) has conducted research into how distracted driving is increasingly linked to injury on our roads.
As the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety campaign takes off this year, the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) has conducted research into how distracted driving is increasingly linked to injury on our roads.
In January 2004, a 20-year-old woman ran a red light while talking on a cell phone. She slammed into another vehicle crossing directly in front of her. The vehicle she hit was not the first car through the intersection, it was the third or fourth.
The police investigation determined the driver never touched her brakes and was travelling 77km/h when she hit the other vehicle. The crash cost the life of a 12-year-old boy. Witnesses told investigators that the driver was not looking down, not dialling the phone, or texting.
She was looking straight ahead talking on her cell phone as she sped past four cars and a school bus stopped at the robot next to her. Researchers have called this crash a classic case of inattention blindness (distracted driving) caused by the cognitive distraction of a cell phone conversation.
The greatest issue with mobile phone use while driving is the lack of capacity of the human brain to react to external stimuli, assimilate information and decide on appropriate action while concentrating on something else – a conversation in this case.
Estimates indicate that drivers using cell phones look but fail to see up to 50% of the information in their driving environment. What this means in effect is that while one is talking or texting on the phone, vital road information is not being processed by the brain resulting in decisions being made with incomplete information – quite often with disastrous consequences.
Studies have shown that drivers talking on cell phones are four times more likely to be involved in a crash compared to drivers who are not. When one considers that last year 1 million crashes were reported to the SAPS involving almost 1.8 million vehicles, why would you want to increase your already high crash risk?
“We know South African roads are dangerous. On average 40 people die and 25 are permanently disabled on our roads daily,” said the AA’s head of public affairs, Gary Ronald. “The goals of the Decade of Action are to reduce crashes, injury and death by 50% by 2020. Their motto is: ten reasons plus ten years is a decade of action.”
The ten reasons are quite compelling:
1. 1.3 million people are killed on the world’s roads each year
2. Road crashes kill more people than malaria
3. 50 million people are injured, and many disabled as a result.
4. 90% of these casualties occur in developing countries
5. Annual deaths are forecast to rise to 1.9 million by 2020
6. It is the primary cause of death for young people worldwide
7. By 2015 it will be the leading health burden for children over the age of five in developing countries
8. The economic cost to developing countries is at least $100 billion a year
9. Injuries place immense burdens on hospitals and health systems
10. Road crashes are preventable
The research and numbers show that our cars need to be a cell free zone. “When you become a driver you undertake not to use a mobile phone while you are driving at all – not even handsfree,” says Ronald.
"The AA’s own research into distracted driving prevalence accurately mirrors the findings of the World Health Organisation for developing countries, and the occurrence of motorists using their cell phones while driving seems to be growing,” continues Ronald.
“During a typical morning traffic peak (7am – 8.30am), we found that 7.2% of the 2500 drivers observed were holding and using their mobile phones while driving. Hands free usage was not counted in the survey.”
