Likelihood of Crashing While Distracted

You know what’s not cool? Driving while distracted. When you’re driving, all of your attention should be on the already millions of things you have to focus on. When you drive distracted, you’re so much more likely to get in a serious collision than you are if you’re paying attention to the task at hand (driving). If you take a course like Impact Teen Drivers or Aceable, you'll learn all about the dangers of distracted driving. But a little refresh and some eye-opening numbers never hurt anyone. Keep reading to find out why distracted driving is actually the worst, and why there should be no texting, dialing cell numbers, taking selfies, putting on makeup, breakdancing, or whatever other crazy distracted stuff people do behind the wheel.

The following activities increase the likelihood of crashing your vehicle:

• Talking or listening: 1.3x more likely to crash

• Reaching for your device: 1.4x more likely to crash.

• Dialing: 2.8x more likely to crash.

• Texting: 23x more likely to crash.

• Not listening to your friends at Aceable: 100x more likely to crash.

Car crash statistics are scary, but luckily you can help reduce them. If you text while you drive, you’ll spend approximately 10% of your time driving outside of your lane. Obviously, you should be spending 100% of your time in your own lane. When you start to move outside of it, you start to risk hitting something, or someone.

Think about it - you’re texting and not paying attention to the road. You slowly move to the outside of your lane without realizing it. Coming up, there’s a person changing out their flat tire on the shoulder. You look up, but it’s too late. Bam. A potentially fatal accident that could have so easily been avoided. According to the data regarding crashes by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), there were 3,477 traffic fatalities from accidents involving distracted driving in 2015. 3,477 fatalities that didn't need to happen.

Texting and Driving is Seriously Unsafe

The AAA Foundation found that distractions last an additional 27 seconds even after ending distracted activities. That's almost an additional half minute of increased car accident risk regardless of how long you're looking at your phone. It can wait, fam. Really. Teen drivers were also listed among the most likely to drive distracted, stating that some teen drivers are distracted up to 50% of their time behind the wheel. This is part of the reason that teen crashes are so prevalent. Driver distractions are totally not Aceable, and we know you're smart enough to be safe out there on the road and stay focused.

Your goal while driving is to be as safe as possible. We're not going to say it’s an easy goal, but it is essential to ensure the safety of yourself and others. To make reaching this goal easier, eliminate distractions and stay off the phone until you get to where you’re going. Help us reduce the number of accidents and teens killed in these accidents. Be Aceable!

We know talking about this stuff is scary, but it's an important conversation to have. According to the NSC (National Safety Council), the involvement of distracted driving in fatal accidents is actually really underreported making people think it's not as big of an issue as it is. Help us reduce the number of accidents and teens killed in these accidents by holding yourself and other accountable. Say something. Spread awareness. Be Aceable!