Local officials share security recommendations as Distracted Driving Consciousness Thirty day period begins

SALT LAKE Metropolis (ABC4) – April is Distracted Driving Consciousness Thirty day period and community officers want to remind Utahns about what they can do to limit distractions and preserve roads protected.

“Our officers, that is an ongoing factor that we see, not just below in Salt Lake City, but it is some thing that is a statewide challenge,” said Sgt. Mark Wian, with the Salt Lake Town Law enforcement Section.

According to the Utah Highway Protection Office environment, there ended up 12 fatalities caused by distracted driving very last calendar year. John Gleason with the Utah Office of Transportation says this number could be better.  

“Many of the crashes we search at, that we do not have a obvious-reduce vision as to what transpired, there is a amount of distraction there that performed a element. And I feel distraction is most likely the most important problem that we have dealing with basic safety on our streets in the foreseeable future here,” Gleason claims.

Utah Freeway Patrol states a lot of matters can lead to distracted driving, such as ingesting, conversing to the passengers upcoming to you, altering the radio – and one of the biggest kinds, texting. When it arrives to driving, industry experts say do not check out to multitask – keep your eyes on the road at all situations.

The National Freeway Targeted visitors Security Administration claims that sending or reading through text messages takes a person’s eyes off the street for 5 seconds, and at 55 miles per hour, that is like driving the size of an entire football industry with your eyes shut.

“Even in two seconds, a whole lot can transpire,” stated Sgt. Wian. “Distracted driving does not just revolve all around the driver, that has an effect on other people that are out on the roadway, be it that they are other motorists, persons that are walking, bicycling.”

Cpl. Andrew Battenfield with Utah Freeway Patrol says that when you’re distracted, you can end up having too shut to the car or truck in entrance of you — rising your likelihood of crashing, or even drifting out of your lane and sideswiping another automobile.

He encourages moms and dads to discuss to their teens about driving safely so they create fantastic behaviors early on. He says it is vital to appear about 8-twelve seconds down the road to be mindful of what is likely on at all periods.

“We want you to travel focused on what you are carrying out at the time, not to get distracted, and not to allow factors outside of your control to handle you,” Battenfield claims.

Officials say some approaches to limit distractions are to put your cellphone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ method and out of reach. If you do have an urgent phone contact to make, they say it’s greatest to pull in excess of someplace safe to do so.

Sgt. Wian claims that distracted driving is a huge difficulty that matters not just for the duration of this month, but every working day of the calendar year. Officials say that if you see distracted driving on the roads, report it if you can do so safely and securely.