WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--You can take a seat just about anywhere to check your smartphone – like your favorite recliner, a park bench on a sunny spring day, or your go-to local coffee shop. But GEICO requests that you please don’t go mobile in your vehicle.
NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) reports that more than 1.5 million people were injured in distracted driving crashes over a four-year span – that's more than the population of some of the U.S.'s largest cities. GEICO feels Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April is a good time for some reminders.
If your smartphone becomes too tempting to resist, take extra steps to keep it out of sight and earshot. Start by switching it to silent, and stash it in the glove compartment or even the trunk.
While smartphones can clearly be a big distraction, here are some other habits that also cause distractions:
- The mind wanderer: Time behind the wheel can sometimes start to drag, making it easy to let your mind drift off to other things. When you start trying to think of items you need at the grocery store or household chores you need to do, your level of attention to the road drops considerably. A wandering mind can lead to a sort of tunnel vision that causes drivers to miss common objects.
- The passenger palooza: Loud conversations and horseplay are fine for a party, but bad news in the car. In fact, a study from NHTSA noted that passengers were the top source of distractions for drivers. Keep things calm during your ride time and plan to have more fun once you park.
- The "car"-tographer: Getting lost can draw the ire of nearly any driver. If you need to check Google maps or program a destination into your GPS, pull off to a safe spot to do it.
GEICO thinks it's worth repeating: "Go mobile anytime, just not in your car."
To stay in the know on distracted driving, visit GEICO's interactive distracted driving resources page on the GEICO More content hub.
