April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) along with a variety of public safety and law enforcement agencies across the nation are raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving this month. The NHTSA’s U Drive. U Text. U Pay. Campaign will run from April 6-10, 2017. This campaign will be focused on the law enforcement efforts associated with keeping distracted drivers off of the roads. They will be running paid media campaigns from April 3-10, 2017. The target audience of this year’s campaign is men and women ages 18 through 34 years old.
One Text or Call Could Wreck it All
The “one text or call could wreck it all” slogan accurately captures the heart of the distracted-driving awareness campaign. It only takes one text or call to ruin lives. The average amount of time it takes you to send or read a text is five seconds. At 55 miles-per-hour, five seconds is the length of a football field. If you’re looking at your phone, that’s like having your eyes closed. A lot can happen in five seconds.
The Facts on Distracted Driving
- In 2015, 3,477 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers.
- An estimated 391,000 people were injured in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2015.
- Nine percent of all drivers 15-19 years old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crash.
- 10 percent of fatal crashes, 15 percent of injury crashes and 14 percent of all police-reported crashes in 2015 were reported as distraction-affected crashes.
Asheville Distracted Driving Accidents
During National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, the NHTSA is calling on motorists to make a commitment to distraction-free driving. The text or call can wait. Before you start driving, put your phone on silent, and put it in the back seat. Whatever it is, it can wait. No text or call is worth endangering your life or the lives of others.
If you have been injured or if you have lost a loved one in a crash involving a distracted driver in Asheville or in any of the surrounding Western North Carolina communities, contact the skilled and proven Personal Injury team at Davis Law Group, P.A. at 888-773-8388 for a free case consultation today.