Recently I began riding my bicycle again in an effort to take off a few pounds and get in better shape. Nothing heavy duty, typically a 40 minute ride around our home in Tulare. The bicycle lanes on the far right of the road keep you out of the main traffic and seemingly makes it safer. But after a few sessions of huffing and puffing, I began to notice some driver behavior I hadn't seen when I was riding my bike several years ago.
The behavior I observed is "distracted driving". And it's really scary when you're riding your bicycle. The time it becomes most apparent is when you approach an intersection when a car is stopped at a stop sign to the right. As you approach on your bike on the far right in the bicycle lane, in many cases I've observed the driver of the stopped car looking straight down as if they're looking at something in their lap.
I don't always know why their eyes are looking down, but I assume they're texting or playing with their cell phone. The problem is this. Since the bicyclist is riding so far to the right, when the driver finally gazes up to look for traffic, it's often too late to see you on the bike. And they often will proceed into the intersection and not even notice you coming.
Fortunately, I have not yet been struck by any cars. And that's only because I practice defensive driving on my bike and anticipate the driver doesn't see me. It sometimes means I will slow down or even come to a complete stop until I'm sure the driver sees me.
This "distracted driver" is now a major problem in the United States (and around the world). Take a look at these statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation:
- In 2008 almost 20% of all crashes involved some form of driver distraction.
- Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 and more than 1/2 million were injured as a result of a distracted driver.
- Young, inexperienced drivers (under 20) are the worst offenders.
- Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to cause injury.
- And amazingly, cell phone use while driving, whether it's hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent (Source: University of Utah)
As you can see, distracted driving is extremely serious stuff. My encouragement to you and your family is this... do not use your cell phone in any manner while driving. This includes phone calls, texting, watching a video and surfing the internet. In fact, any type of activity behind the wheel that causes you to take your eyes of the road, take your hands off the wheel, or take your mind off of driving is considered distracted driving and can cause an accident.
As an insurance agency, we're not just concerned with protecting the assets of our policy clients, we also feel the responsibility to provide information and education on how to remain safe and secure from the hazards we all face in our daily walk of life.
Please take a few minutes and view the videos on the right. And if you have children or grand children who drive, make sure they see them as well. It just might make the difference in their driving habits and save them from injury or even worse.
Have a safe, secure, and joyous Holiday season!
Phil Oliver
Managing Partner
CIG Central Valley Insurance Agency
