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AAA Carolinas Warns Against Districted Driving in North Carolina and South Carolina

A new education campaign by AAA Carolinas warns drivers in North Carolina and South Carolina counties against distracted driving. There are 10 counties targeted in the campaign (5 in each state). The North Carolina counties are Wake County, Watauga County, Pitt County, Durham County, and New Hanover County. The counties were selected because of annual figures pinpointing these counties as the most dangerous in each state for motor vehicle crashes and injuries.

The campaign strongly cautions about talking on the cell phone while driving. Graphic posters placed in gas stations note that a driver is four times more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle crash while he or she is talking on a phone.

According to a 2008 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute Study, for every 10 auto collisions, eight of the auto crashes involved drivers that were using cell phones or smart phones. 65% of near-crashes also happened when motorists were talking on the phone or text messaging.

A 2001 University of North Carolina study estimates that some 284,000 distracted motorists are involved in serious injury accidents each year. The AAA Carolinas Web site says that 4,000 to 8,000 traffic collisions occur every day because of distracted driving. Driving while distracted can also be linked to up to 3 million of the 6 million auto collisions that occur in the United States each year.

Distracted driving can also occur while a driver is:

? Searching through an iPod or another MP3 player
? Eating while driving
? Putting on makeup
? Reading a book or a newspaper

AAA says distracted driving contributes to one-third of S.C. crashes, SCNow.com, September 26, 2008

AAA tackles problem of distracted driving, The Watauga Democrat, September 22, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Distracted Driving, AAA

AAA Carolinas

Drowsy and Distracted Driving, NHTSA

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on October 13, 2008 (boomark / email).