Message Monday - Jenny, I've got your number, but I'll wait to text
Plain and simple - put your phone away if you’re driving. Whether you’re old school and actually use your phone to call someone or you communicate via text or SnapChat, the conversation can wait.
Because distracted driving due to cell phone use is a relatively new danger on roadways, there isn’t great data to show how devastating the issue really is. But we all know that if we aren’t guilty of using the phone behind the wheel ourselves, we’ve seen any number of other people putting lives in danger by driving distracted.
Here are some facts we do know:
- Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of a football field blind.
- Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.
- Drivers are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves while driving distracted
And now the Way Back Machine goes to the 1981 - https://youtu.be/6WTdTwcmxyo
For 2018, there have been 262 fatalities reported. That’s an increase of five since last Monday. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go to the daily fatality report at https://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf