The Importance Of Distracted Driving

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Automobile drivers possess the important jobs of keeping focus, maintaining composure, and understanding their environment. Although many drivers are able to continually perform these essential tasks while driving, it is no secret that multiple distractions are available every day to divert a driver’s attention. More than 15 Americans are killed and 1,200 are injured each day due to distracted driving (“Distracted driving: Fast lane to disaster,” 2012), which makes it an alarmingly important concern. Cellular phone usage is one of the most common safety concerns among drivers, yet other common distractions such as music and passenger conversation are available even if a driver is not using a cellular phone. Extensive research has been studied about the effects of driver distraction, and it is common knowledge that distracted drivers perform tasks with …show more content…
Since this is such a high safety concern, we must make a conscious effort to clearly understand all of our driving distractions, so we are not led to make grave decisions while driving. Listening to music is a common activity for most drivers, with the average driver listening to seven hours of in-car music per week (“Music Driving Us to Distraction,” 2012). The effects of music listening varies with each individual driver, but one in ten drivers do admit that listening to music has or almost caused them to get into a car accident (“Music Driving Us to Distraction,” 2012). Also, this increases drastically with drivers aged 18-24, for nearly one in three admit to having been side-tracked by listening to music (“Music Driving Us to Distraction,” 2012). Other factors such as music type and gender also play a role in the effect of music on drivers. For example,