The National Safety council promotes that April is distracted driving awareness month… One common misconception is hands free devices are not distracted driving. What is the reality? Anytime your mind is focused on something other than the driving task, it is distracted driving. Distracted driving comes in several forms, of course we all recognize hand held devices as distracted driving… But what about eating and driving? What about talking to passengers, talking on hands free devices, changing radio stations, thinking about something that happened over the weekend? How about focusing attention on that motorist that isn’t driving properly, or is text messaging? These can all be forms of distracted driving, and can increase your risk of being involved in a collision.

So you may be asking how can the above mentioned actions be considered distracted driving? Of course some of them are obvious, eating while driving has it’s obvious distractions no different than using a handheld device, but what about those other ones that many do not see as distracting. Let’s start with focusing attention on that motorist that may be distracted, or downright not driving safely. When we perceive something as being an imminent threat, the natural tendency is to focus all of our attention to that person, especially if it annoys us. Whenever we take our attention from the driving task, to focus on anything other than just that, we are distracted… There is a risk in these situations of us focusing too much attention on that person, and overlooking other dangerous situations that are developing which increases our risk of causing a separate collisions. Obviously we want to keep track of that person, but we also need to stay focused on what is happening around the vehicle. I recall watching this unfold during a trip to Toronto, a motorist was obviously distracted by their cell phone (texting) and weaving all over the road. A truck driver noticed these actions and was obviously offended as he paid all his attention to what that motorist was doing. In the meantime, the traffic came to a quick stop and the truck driver ended up rear ending the vehicle in front of him because he was not watching the traffic ahead, but was watching the texting motorist. In these situations the best course of action is to put as much space between you and the offending motorist as possible so that you can stay focused on the task at hand.

The other less obvious distractions for the most part, take our thoughts away from the driving task and put our brains onto other tasks, such as, conversations either on blue tooth or even with a passenger. These actions are a form of auto pilot… Ever see that motorist that seems to be slowing down and then speeding up, in a lot of cases they are not focused on driving, they may be involved in a conversation on a blue tooth, with a passenger, or day dreaming. As they fade in and out of focusing on the driving task, their driving behavior changes. For the most part they are in control and have limited risk, but if the attention turns to the conversation at the wrong time, it could cause them to overlook something very important, that could have devastating results. Our brains are very good at multitasking, for some more than others, and after spending enormous amounts of time on the road we gain more confidence with allowing our brains to focus on other tasks. Remember the first time you drove a vehicle, the amount of focus you put on driving… After time, and confidence, we allow that focus to subside. Day dreaming can become one of the biggest risks for truck drivers, as we spend a lot of time on the road, driving can become second nature and in many cases boring, as we allow our brains to think about other things our focus on the road reduces. I am not saying this makes us bad drivers, because this happens to the best of us, but it does increase the risk of collisions, especially if we are running on auto pilot when someone else makes a driving error…

Understanding what causes these distractions, and putting forth a conscious effort to avoid them, is the first step to improving our driving habits which will improve our safety.
• Avoid in cab distractions, such as hand held devices.
• Avoid getting into in-depth conversations on a blue tooth. Quick conversation to say I will call you back, or answer a quick question would be ok at the right time. But longer in-depth conversations that take your mind off the driving task should be avoided.
• Try to avoid allowing your mind to wander. A good trick to keeping your mind on task, is self-talk. Play the what if game, what would I do if…. Continually scan 360 degrees around the truck and continuously plan every move you make.

Avoid distractions, hold yourself accountable to staying focused, and reduce your risk of collisions. Stay safe.

Steve Newton

Director of Safety