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In a series of recent public service announcements, many companies and government agencies are using humor and other psychological tactics to bring about a greater awareness and understanding of the dangers of drinking or texting while driving.
Nationwide Insurance released a commercial showing two groups of high school students texting as they walk and approaching each other from different directions. The students collide in slow motion to the sounds of a vehicle accident with the final message, Texting while walking is dangerous. While driving, its deadly. The Ad Council, in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), took it a step further. This campaign shows humorous texting-and-walking mishaps in the first half of the commercial such as falling into a fountain or tripping up a set of stairs. But the end of their commercials are more serious, depicting teens responding to texts while driving and blacking out the scene just before the vehicles crash into innocent families.
Tackling a somewhat older problem, the NHTSA also released commercials warning against the consequences of drinking and driving. One of them features intoxicated drivers navigating vehicles that are filled with whatever liquor the driver had been consuming, with the liquid pouring out when a police officer steps up to the vehicle. Another has the inebriated drivers pulling up to patrol cars and admitting how drunk they are.
All these examples use humor to underscore two very serious problems. However, while one reaches epidemic levels, the other appears to be declining.
Two Very Serious Problems
The facts are startling regarding texting while driving, especially concerning teenage drivers.
- A poll conducted by AT&T reported that even though 97% of teenagers know it is dangerous, 43% still do it.
- 77% of young adults feel very or somewhat confident they can safely text while driving.
- Teen drivers are four times more likely than other age groups to be involved in motor vehicle crashes. Texting while driving increases the crash rate almost 23 times.
- In 2012, texting replaced driving while intoxicated as the leading cause of accidents and deaths of teenage drivers.
However, this isnt just a problem with teens. In the same AT&T poll, 49% of commuters admitted to texting while driving, and the problem is growing. Six out of ten commuters said they never texted while driving three years ago. In 2011 (latest figures available), nearly 23% of auto collisions (1.3 million) involved cell phones. In fact, a Harvard Center for Risk Analysis study showed that 3,000 deaths per year were caused by texting while driving.
The figures are even more staggering when it comes to drinking and driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/:
- Every 90 seconds a person is injured in a drunk driving accident (NHTSA)
- In 2010, adults drank too much and got behind the wheel about 112 million times, the equivalent of about 300,000 incidents of drinking and driving per day. (CDC)
- In 2011, 9,878 people died in drunk driving related crashes. (NHTSA)
So, Which One is Worse?
Looking at the statistics, one might be surprised to discover that between texting and drunk driving, texting is actually considered more dangerous. Even though drinking and driving is the cause of more deaths, statistics show those numbers are declining thanks to better awareness, education and stricter enforcement. According to the NHTSA, the number of drunk driving fatalities has decreased by more than 35% since 1991.
However, the trend of texting while driving is on the rise, with increased fatalities to match. In 2012, the NHTSA stated that driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. The average time a driver is distracted by sending or receiving a text is 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving blind for the length of a football field at 55 mph. As a result, states are cracking down on this epidemic. To date, 41 states and the District of Columbia have banned text messaging for all drivers. Hopefully these measures will curb this issue before it becomes an even greater problem.
Sladen West is a freelance writer dedicated to helping others stay safe through general auto safety education and a good defensive driving course.
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