Change Your Habits, Save Your Life

While agencies like ours are always striving to make driving safer and to reduce the potential for crashes, there are still dangers to road travel. Complicating safety more is a society of drivers that are attached to their phones. The advantages that a smartphone offers in round the clock accessibility helps us accomplish work outside of the traditional office and connect with friends and family all over the globe with social media updates and photo sharing. This freedom to connect is fantastic but a recipe for danger when you are behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.

If you make only one New Year’s resolution this year, make it to put down the phone while you drive. Changing this habit could save your life and help you avoid injuring yourself or others in a crash.

We are asking that you take more and more people are accessing their phones while they drive. While this might seem to offer additional productivity, it is a dangerous habit that distracts drivers from focusing all of their attention on the task of driving. It is very easy to get in the habit of answering a quick email while at a red light or reading a report while stuck in traffic, however, data shows that our brains can not handle the complex decision-making process of driving and get lost in responding to your cell phone data at the same time. How many times have you honked the horn at a driver to alert them that the light has turned green or felt someone creeping into your lane while they are gazing down at their phone?

It is happening more and more. This year as you set your New Year’s intentions, please make it a point to add in the important intention to put your phone away while you drive. Your car is not your office and the messages coming in on your phone are not more important than arriving to your destination unharmed. Every year, it is estimated that more than 1,000 people are injured each day in accidents in which at least one driver was distracted*.

You can break the habit. Your car is not your office. Tuck the phone into your glove compartment or bag while you drive or add an app that will automatically snooze your phone while you drive. It might be difficult at first but once you establish a new routine, you find that you are more alert and relaxed when you drive. This alertness is invaluable on our roads and ultimately makes driving safer for everyone in our community.

Make the effort this year and put the phone down while you drive. Prevent possible harm and the stress of an accident that can arise when you are a distracted driver.