There are a million things going on at any given moment of the day around you. If we look internally we could add another thousand items that you may be thinking of. Now I don’t know the actual numbers but I do know one thing, distracted driving numbers are up. In fact recently I was at a safety conference for the transportation industry and one of the presenters claimed that distracted driving statistics have now surpassed impaired driving statistics as the leading cause of accidents on our roadways. Think about it, our lives are now technology driven for the most part. People are rushing more and more to meetings and events. Roadways have more vehicles than ever before and those same vehicles have more technology than ever before.

It is so easy to be distracted in the vehicles these days. You take a sip of your coffee, you turn down the radio, you answer the call on your hands free cell phone, you adjust the sun visor, you’re watching your GPS, watching the road signs, looking for your exit, watching the cars on the right, left, behind, and in front of your vehicle. I’m tired just writing all that down, but we are not done. Those are just the things you are doing physically but what about the mental aspect of our lives? While you are doing all that you may be thinking about family at home, your finances, a future vacation, happenings coming up next weekend, the party last weekend, or issues at work. Maybe you are an owner operator and have business issues to deal with? So you can see how many things may be happening at once while driving down the road and that is just you. Multiply that by the ten cars around you, then multiply that by the amount of vehicles on the roadway, the amount of traffic over a one hour period, and you can see the impact of distracted driving. We haven’t even counted the folks who are disobeying our laws by talking on the phone and holding it in their hands.

So next time you are running down the road and are thinking you are being safe and not being distracted, think about the other ten cars around you. It may make you pay more attention to your safety. As they say, “watch out for the other guy!”

About the Author

Bruce Outridge has been in the transportation industry for over 30 years and is the author of the books: Driven to Drive and Running by the Mile. Challenger Motor Freight Inc. is one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies (platinum member) and is looking for quality team members. To learn more about opportunities with Challenger visit their website at www.challenger.com