End Distracted Driving in Your Community

Distracted driving has become an epidemic in our country. Driver inattention—caused by something as minor as adjusting the radio or as shocking as reading the newspaper while driving—has always been a problem for highway safety. But with cell phones and electronic devices always at our sides, distracted driving has reached near epic proportions.

While legislation and doling out tickets might help, ending distracted driving—much like promoting seat belt use—requires drivers to change their attitudes and their behavior. And so educational efforts are greatly needed. This is where the organization End Distracted Driving comes in.

And you can—and should—get involved with the campaign to end this hazardous behavior in your community. As part of its 2012 Student Awareness Initiative, End Distracted Driving is coordinating speaker events across the country with the aim of educating, informing and inspiring individuals to commit to ending distracted driving. The goal is to get together a network of attorneys who will reach out to tens of thousands of students throughout the year.

It’s easy to get involved:

• Find or request a speaker in your area and host a safety talk in your area.
• Become a speaker yourself and give a little bit of your time to make a big impact in your community. You will receive presentation, handout and related materials and will be advised on how to present. Then the organization will connect you with schools where you can make a difference.

These speaker events provide an important opportunity to:

• Educate about what distracted driving includes: texting, using a cell phone, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, grooming, reading (including maps), using a navigation system, watching a video, adjusting the radio
• Explains how these activities involve “manual”, “visual” and “cognitive” distractions
• Provide concrete examples of what distracted driving looks like when it happens
• Invite participants to identify and take ownership and responsibility over their own distracted driving habits
• Help participants understand the risks and impacts of distracted driving, through personal accounts from victims of distracted driving
• Give participants the tools necessary to change their behaviors and the behavior of those around them