Take Action
All of us can take action to prevent distracted driving. No step is too big or too small when attempting to prevent injuries and save lives. Becoming informed is the best way to start.
Below are some ideas on what you can do:
What You Can Do
What Parents Can Do
What Law Enforcement Can Do
What Employers Can Do
What Medical and Health Professionals Can Do
What You Can Do
Set a good example for your friends and family. Never talk or text on your cell phone while driving. If you are a passenger in a car and the driver is talking or testing on his/her cell phone, ask them to pull over and stop the car or wait until they get to their destination.
Before you drive, turn off your phone and put it out of reach. You can turn it back on when you reach your destination.
Vow to talk only when it is safe to do so.
Set your cell phone ringer to “mute” so you won’t be tempted to answer it if it rings while you’re driving.
Change your voicemail message to let callers know that you won’t talk because you’re driving, but you’ll call back as soon as it is safe to do so.
Drive defensively. Even though you won’t drive while distracted, there are others who do.
Manage your time. Driving and multi-tasking don’t mix.
Remember — driving time is just for driving. Distracted driving can involve using a cell phone, eating, drinking, grooming, using a GPS, radio/CD channel surfing, and reading.
If you make a call and reach someone who is driving, tell them you’ll call them back or ask them to call you when they reach their destination and it’s safe to chat.
If you’re in the car with someone who is driving while distracted, ask them to please put the distraction away until you reach your destination.
Strengthen the efforts to eliminate distracted driving by adding your voice and experience to community and injury prevention coalitions and advocacy groups.
Find out what the distracted driving law is in your State for adults and young drivers. If your State does not have a cell phone or texting ban, or has limited or a weak distracted driving law, become a champion for legislation. Call or write your State legislators and let them know you support distracted driving laws.
What Parents Can Do
Tell your teens that you want them to be safe because you love them, and it would break your heart if they were involved in a distracted driving crash.
Talk to your teen. Tell your teen driver about the devastating consequences of distracted driving. They won’t think it can happen to them, but it can. Know the facts and share it with them. Engage your teens in a dialogue about the problem.
Know the law. Many Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws have cell phone and texting bans for your drivers. Make sure you and your teen driver know the law and that your teen driver adheres to the rules. In addition to the consequences that you have set at home, if your teen violates the GDL law they could have their license delayed or suspended.
Set rules to keep your teens from driving while distracted. Tell them that you will check the cell phone log on the bill, and that there will be serious consequences if they break the rules. Then follow through if they do break the rules.
Set a good example. Turn your phone off before you get behind the wheel, and put it out of reach until you reach your destination and can use it safely.
Remind your teens that a fender-bender for a motorist can be deadly for a bicyclist or pedestrian.
Encourage your teens to change their cell phone voicemail message to let callers know that they won’t talk while they’re driving, and that they’ll call them back as soon as it is safe to do so.
Teach your teens to drive defensively. Remind them that even though they don’t drive while distracted, there are others who do.
Remind your teens that every single time someone takes their eyes or their focus off the road - even for just a few seconds - they put their lives and the lives of others in danger. Ask them how they would feel if they were responsible for injuring or killing another person because they were on the phone.
When you’re driving in the car with your teens, see if they can identify distracted drivers by their dangerous and - distracted - driving.
Explain to your teens that driving skill comes with experience that they just don’t have yet. Tell them that research shows that the worst distracted driving offenders are like them: men and women 20 years of age and under with limited driving experience.
Tell your teens to do their grooming at home. Remind them that the rearview mirror is for checking out traffic not their cute face.
Remind your teens that driving time is just for driving — not eating, drinking, reading, looking for a CD or a station on the radio, or trying to enter an address into the GPS.
What Law Enforcement Can Do
Set a good example. Never talk or text on your cell phone while driving.
Establish a formal distracted driving policy for your agency and officers. Require a ban on cell phone use and texting while driving.
Brief or train officers on the serious dangers posed by distracted driving. Make distracted driving enforcement agency priority. Modify law enforcement training curricula to include additional information related to distracted driving and the importance of enforcing distracted driving laws.
Include distracted driving informational sessions at annual meetings/conferences and other meetings.
Produce a roll call video/DVD for officers.
Actively promote and enforce the distracted driving law in your State. Conduct periodic high-visibility enforcement programs.
Publish distracted driving statistics and information in agency newsletter, web sites, list-servs, squad rooms, etc.
What Employers Can Do
Use the President’s Executive Order banning texting and driving for Federal employees http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Executive-Order-Federal-Leadership-on-Reducing-Text-Messaging-while-Driving/ as a template to develop an organizational policy for your employees. Send a strong, unequivocal signal to your employees that distracted driving is dangerous and unacceptable.
Create a culture of safety. Make it clear to your employees that the expectation is the that they will NOT talk or test on their cell phones while driving on company time or in company vehicles. Ensure that there are no negative consequences for employees who wait for a safe opportunity to take or return a call or text.
Conduct informal observational surveys of cell phone use at the entrances and exits of your company. Publicize the results as a way to reinforce your distracted driving policy. Provide small incentives such as coupons, music download cards, special privileges like a free day of parking, etc to employees observed driving distraction free.
Have employees sign a contract that says they will not violate the organization’s ban on texting and driving. Include a provision to advise employees that if a crash occurs, the employer has the right to subpoena the employee’s phone records, and if he/she was using a cell phone when the crash occurred, the crash will be considered preventable and the driver will assume all financial responsibility.
Visit the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety’s website (trafficsafety.org) to see what 24 leading companies are doing about company driver cell phone use. Consider integrating some of these policies into your organization’s cell phone policy.
Cell phone summaries from 24 NETS members
Visit www.distraction.gov to learn more about the state laws that ban cell phone use. This information is especially helpful if your employees travel across state lines.
Many people are unaware of the dangers associated with distracted driving. Visit the “Stats and Facts” http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/ and “Faq” http://www.distraction.gov/faq/ pages at Distraction.gov to develop materials to support an outreach and education campaign among your employees.
Inform employees who carry work-owned wireless mobile devices that their work phone bills will be monitored, and there will be consequences for those who violate the organization’s cell phone policy.
Use a variety of organizational channels to communicate with employees the company's commitment to safety and health and specifically to the nonuse of cell phones and texting.
What Medical and Health Professionals Can Do
Educate patients of all ages about the dangers of distracted driving during well visits, check-ups, and other visits to clinics, medical offices and hospitals.
