CDC Examines How Distracted Driving In The US Compares To European Countries

When it comes to distracted driving, there are 3 main types of distraction: Visual, Manual and Cognitive. A Visual Distraction, the most obvious, is taking your eyes off the road. A manual distraction is taking your hands off the wheel, and a cognitive distraction means taking your mind off of the task at hand- driving.

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control examined two major distracting activities that can fall into all three categories. The study examined the frequency of cell phone use, and texting while driving in both the United States and Europe.

A quarter of all American drivers polled reported that they regularly talk on their cell phones while driving. Taking a closer look at our young drivers, the leaders of tomorrow, 40% of 18-29 year old drivers said they talk on they regularly talk on their cell phones while driving. 75% said that they used their cell phone while driving at least once in the last 30 days.

Less Europeans use their cell phone regularly while driving Among the different countries polled The Netherlands had the largest regular cell phone users at 21% if respondents. 30% of 18-29 year old drivers admitted to talking on their cell phone at least once within the past 30 days.

In the United States, Less people overall are texting regularly compared to those just making phone calls. Only 9% of Americans in the study said they frequently text while driving. 52% of Young Adults polled admitted to texting while driving at least once in the past 30 days. Though this is more than half of population, it still 23% less than the amount of youths that admitted to talking on their phones while driving.

The amount of Dutch drivers that admitted to texting while driving regularly was 1% higher than in the United States. However, Portugal, who had the highest amount of young drivers admitting to texting while driving still came in lower than the United States at 44%.

While it appears that Europeans overall are not all that different from Americans when it comes to distracted driving, it is encouraging to learn that the numbers in the United Kingdom were significantly lower than that of the United States.

Only 3% of Drivers in the U.K. said they regularly talk on their cell phones while driving. 1% reported regular texting while driving.

Every day, more than 15 people are killed in crashes that involve a distracted drivier. We Americans have adopted a lot of things from British Culture into our own such as, The Beatles, Harry Potter, and Adele. Perhaps now we can adopt some of their safer driving habits.

For more information on Distracted Driving and to find out how you can get involved please visit www. EndDD.org