FATAL FIVE DISTRACTIONS

WHAT IS A DISTRACTION? “any non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing.” Driving is a skill that requires your full attention to safely control your vehicle and respond to events happening around you. Distractions are anything that takes your attention off the primary task of driving.   There are 3 types of distractions:   Visual Distractions: Anything that takes your eyes off the road.  Manual Distractions: Anything that takes your hands off the steering wheel.  Cognitive Distractions: Anything that takes your mind off driving.

DISCUSSION Create a list of distractions and what category it fits into. And then discuss what strategies you can take to avoid that distraction Mobile phone – making or answering a call, text messaging. Other passengers making noise and/or playing around. Fiddling with the radio or CD or MP3 player. Looking at a map app or navigation device. Feeling tired (suffering fatigue). Eating, drinking or smoking while driving. More will follow on the coming pages.

THE MOST COMMON DISTRACTIONS? Eating and drinking Talking to passengers Grooming (applying make-up / shaving) Reading (maps / newspapers) Using PDA or navigation system Children Smoking Watching a video Changing the radio station, CD, Ipod MP3 player or other device Distractions now join alcohol and speed as the leading factors in fatal and serious crashes and about 80% of people admit to changing clothes, steering with a foot, painting nails, and shaving. • Driver distractions – mobile phones, other passengers, loud music. • Something unexpected happening – in an experiment the subject was waiting for the particular event to happen. • Being tired (fatigued). • Being under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Group Discussion: What is the most common driving distraction?

MOBILE PHONES How Mobiles Distract You While Driving Visual – Eyes off road Mechanical – Hands off wheel Cognitive – Mind off driving 4.6 SECONDS Driving while using a mobile phone can cause both physical and cognitive distraction and it doesn’t matter whether it is hand held or ‘hands free’.   Specifically, using a mobile phone while driving can increase your reaction time by between 20 and 60% Using a mobile phone while driving significantly impairs a driver’s visual search patterns; ability to maintain a constant speed and position on the road; it impairs your ability to judge safe gaps in the traffic and general awareness of other vehicles and people. Group Discussion Is this the same when talking to a passenger? No. Research shows that when having a conversation with another person who is physically in the vehicle with you and something on the road requires the driver to increase their concentration, the conversation with the passenger will inevitably break off for a moment. Whereas, the person on the other end of the mobile will carry on regardless and unaware, because they can’t see what’s happening on the road. The research shows that when on a mobile phone the driver actually pays more attention to the ongoing conversation and less attention to the driving. Group Discussion. What is the most common crash types associated with mobile phone usage? Run-off-the-road and rear end crashes. The best option is to turn off your phone before you start driving. Should you receive a call while driving, let it go through to voice mail or, if you simply must take it, pull over safely to the side of the road and park so you can concentrate What does the law say regarding mobile phone usage? How Mobiles Distract You While Driving Visual – Eyes off road Mechanical – Hands off wheel Cognitive – Mind off driving Drivers don’t seem to understand that talking on a mobile phone distracts the brain and takes the focus away from the primary task of driving. A hands-free is seen as the solution because then you can have both hands on the wheel, so legislation says as long as it’s not in your hand you’re ok. But is it really ok? When we see that the distractions from using a phone are visual (eyes), and cognitive (mind), not just mechanical (hands) we realise that it is actually no safer to use a hands free device. THE AVERAGE TIME A DRIVERS EYES ARE OFF THE ROAD when sending or receiving an SMS is 4.6 seconds

Mobile phone still found in his hand and his head in the back seat… Mobile phone still found in his hand and his head in the back seat….. Can you still tell me texting and driving is fun

DRIVING BLIND Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz9Tk2i2Ilg

DRIVING BLIND Driving is a complex task. Anything that takes the driver’s mind or eyes off the road, or their hands off the wheel, compromises safety. Being distracted increases the chances of having a crash by slowing reaction time and putting a driver in danger of failing to see unexpected hazards such as a traffic light change, stop signs or other road users. If you take your eyes off the road for just two seconds: At 60 km/h you travel 33.33m—that is over 7 average car lengths. At 80 km/h you travel 44.44m—that is over 10 average car lengths. At 100 km/h you travel 55.56m—that is nearly 13 average car lengths.

GET YOUR HAND OFF IT Make sure you know the rules for mobile use when driving, and take time to find ways to reduce the temptation to use your phone illegally when driving. Learner, P1 and P2 licence holders are not permitted to use any function of a mobile phone at all while driving or riding. This includes when waiting at traffic lights or stuck in traffic. You must be parked out of the line of traffic with your engine off to use your phone in any way. Full licence holders can use a mobile only if it is in a mounted hands free kit or if the phone doesn’t need touch to operate. Police issue nearly 35,000 infringements each year. The penalties are high and for P-platers, a single infringement can cost their licence. Learner and P1 drivers and riders penalised for illegally using a mobile phone (four demerit points) will exceed their demerit point threshold and face a three-month licence suspension. P2 drivers and riders will have three demerit points remaining if they are penalised for illegally using a mobile phone.

MOBILES VS DRIVING Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Source: Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging a Carnegie Mellon University Multitasking for the brain is a myth. Human brains do not perform two tasks at same time instead the brain handles tasks sequentially, the brain switches between one task and another. Brain works by: 1. Select information brain will attend to 2. Process information 3. Encode to create memory 4. Store information It must also: 5. Retrieve 6. Execute or act on information When brain is overloaded these steps are affected and it juggles tasks, focus and attention. The brain will switch between primary and secondary tasks known as “ Inattention blindness” or the “looking” but not “seeing” effect. Like when you’re driving on the road and suddenly you realise you drove straight past your turn off or your house. The MRI is of the same brain of a driver. In the first image (s)he is concentrating on the road. In the second image that same person is listening to someone talk while they drive. There was a decrease by 40% in the actively switched on brain. Hands-free drivers less likely to see: High and low relevant objects Visual cues Exits, red lights and stop signs Navigational signage Hands-free is mistakenly believed to be safer than handheld. Hands free devices offer no safety benefit whilst driving. They fail to eliminate the cognitive distraction, as the mind focuses on the conversation and listens and responds to the disembodied voice.   If someone ask about why we can do 2 other tasks at the same time, such as reading and eating, or walking and eating the reason why is because the two are not cognitively demanding tasks, unlike driving a vehicle. Relate it back to being able to watch TV and talk on the phone or Walking on the road and talking on your phone. Even in this situation pedestrians often tend to act unsafely. They are less likely to: Look for traffic before stepping into street Look at traffic while crossing street Notice unusual objects placed along path Driving involves a more complex set of tasks than walking. This may raise the point about why its legal to talk to passengers in the car. We can use the example that passengers are able to physically see what is happening in the drivers surrounding and respond to clues / scenarios to alter their behaviour / conversation, being on the phone you cannot. But it is also not recommended for people to have “heated / emotional” discussions while driving, or to drive during or immediately after an argument. Brain activity used while driving decreases by 40% when a driver listens to a conversation or music.

MOBILES VS DRIVING Source: The Physics Of Car Crashes Performing two functions at the same time is often referred to as multitasking, however, in reality the human brain cannot perform two tasks at the same time, instead, the brain handles tasks sequentially, switching between one task and then another. Switching between tasks may only add a time cost of just a few tenths of a second, but this can start to add up when people begin switching back and forth repeatedly. In a situation where safety is important, such as when driving, even small amounts of time can prove critical. In addition to missing vital safety cues, cognitive fatigue can reduce the amount of information taken in at one time. Multiple short glances, can have a cumulative effect, disrupting cognitive processing of visual, auditory and physical information. It has been estimated that drivers using a mobile phone to talk “look at but fail to see” up to 50 percent of the information in their driving environment A representation of what a driver might perceive when they are not talking on the phone (left panel) and when they are talking on a hands-free cell phone (right panel).

A P-plater can pull over in a safe place and use their mobile phone while the engine is on to keep their Bluetooth connected. True or false? What are the conditions around using a mobile phone for a full licence holder? Can I use a GPS device that is not a phone if I am a learner or provisional licence holder DISCUSSION Q. P-platers can pull over in a safe place and use their mobile phone while the engine is on to keep their Bluetooth connected? A. False, P-platers are not permitted to use a mobile at all while driving. They must be parked (engine off). Q. What are the conditions around using a mobile phone for a full licence holder? A. Full licence holders can use a mobile with a mounted hands free kit or if the phone doesn’t need touch to operate. Q. Can I use a GPS device that is not a phone if I am a learner or provisional licence holder? A. Yes. A GPS device that is not a mobile phone is permitted for all drivers, as long as the device is secured in a mounting fixed to the vehicle and does not obscure the driver’s view of the road. The device must not be placed in a location that will increase the likelihood of injury in a crash.