Drivers on a crash course

Odds are you've witnessed a lot of distracted drivers — folks talking on cell phones, popping CDs into the stereo, eating, applying makeup, tending to children or attempting to check e-mail on their laptop computers.

Odds are you, too, have driven your car while distracted. We all do so at our own peril and at substantial risk to others.

New research has found that nearly 80 percent of collisions or near-crashes involve a lack of attention from drivers moments before impact. Federal and Virginia researchers equipped 100 vehicles in metropolitan Washington, D.C., with video cameras, tracking 241 drivers for a year. Researchers analyzed nearly 2 million miles driven, during which drivers were involved in 82 crashes and 761 near-crashes. The single common factor — a distracted driver.

These findings shouldn't come as a surprise, but they affirm one of the basic rules taught to young drivers: Driving is a full-time job. Unfortunately, many drivers believe they can multi-task in the car as readily as they multi-task in the workplace or in their homes. Unlike their office cubicle, a motor vehicle travels at 20-75 mph, supposing drivers follow posted speed limits. It's neither the time nor the place to apply mascara, help the kids with the back seat DVD player or eat lunch. But many people do.

They shouldn't — especially considering the incredible risk they face of a crash. Utah drivers would be doubly advised to concentrate on their driving given the high percentage of children as part of the overall population and the increasing encounters with wildlife. Any activity that cuts into a driver's reaction time can have deadly consequences.

It's common sense that a distracted driver poses more risk than a driver who is on task. But researchers were surprised at the substantially high degree of risk. Previously, reviews of police reports suggested that inattentive driving was a factor in about one-quarter of automobile accidents.

Even as researchers have verified a substantially higher degree of risk of crashes due to driver distraction, it would be next to impossible to enact laws that require drivers to give driving their full attention. But these findings should prompt drivers to assess their own behaviors and take steps to minimize their risks.