Distractions KIll
I’m hoping that none of us who ride actually text while operating our motorcycles. But lately I have seen a whole lot more of the car drivers with their eyes down being distracted while they are out there with us on the roadways. It’s been more than a few times that I have had to change my lane position to avoid a car that drifted my way because the driver was being distracted by some device inside the car.
Our government is spending time and resources analyzing and tracking driving behaviors of people out there on the road. The government is trying to educate the public about the threat distraction causes. The Distraction.gov website is a great place to look if you want to get informed about distracted driving. Distracted driving is a big threat to us all. Here are a few excerpts from the site I found interesting:
—Because text messaging requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver, it is by far the most alarming distraction.
—Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded.
—A quarter of teens respond to a text message once or more every time they drive. 20 percent of teens and 10 percent of parents admit that they have extended, multi-message text conversations while driving.
There is plenty more where those came from, this is just some food for thought.
We should all be more watchful while we’re operating on the roads. Look for signs of lack of concentration and inattentiveness other drivers show by watching how they drive. Speed variation and poor lane control and sudden braking are what I look for. Whether the drivers’ are operating in the same direction you are, say on the freeway, or the opposite direction, on a two lane road, they are still a threat you as you operate your motorcycle.
Distracted driving is a big deal. You can get seriously injured or killed on your bike by a distracted driver. I’d bet that most of the bike/car crashes are related to the car driver being distracted.
On the bike, most of us are paying attention. You can tell because most of us wave to each other as part of our culture. The wave most of us bikers use illustrates that we are attentive and pay attention to our surroundings. We are looking for other bikes to wave to and while we do that we are also watching traffic, paying attention to what car drivers are doing. We are not necessarily the threats on the roadways because we are normally not distracted from our responsibilities.
Be on the lookout for those distracted drivers out there driving “blindfolded.” Consider some of the statistics you have read on the distraction.gov website above, and consider the additional threat you are facing in your daily commute or weekend adventure.
Stay safe!