A new study of distracted driving declares that “Phone addicts are the new drunk drivers.”
The study, by the driver-safety website Zendrive, concludes that “the continued increase in unsafe driving comes despite stricter laws in many states, as well as years of massive ad campaigns from groups ranging from cell phone carriers to orthopedic surgeons,” reports Axios.
The Zendrive report says phone addicts “hide in plain sight, blatantly staring at their phones while driving down the road.”
Over just the past year, Axios says, Zendrive found that “the number of hardcore phone addicts doubled, now accounting for one in 12 drivers. If the current trend continues, that number will be one in five by 2022.”
“I’m sad and concerned,” Zendrive CEO Jonathan Matus told Axios. “It’s frightening how common distracted driving has become and how as a society and as individuals we are okay with the ‘new normal.’”
Axios offered “some sobering states” about phone addicts behind the wheel:
- On any given trip, they physically touch their phones four times more than the average driver.
- As a result, they spend six times longer watching their screens.
- Their eyes are off of the road for 28 percent of their time spent on the road.
Yet — as with other groups of dangerous drivers — “many phone addicts believe they aren’t a problem, with 93% describing themselves as ‘safe’ or ‘extremely safe.’”
“We found that while people are almost universally aware that distracted driving is incredibly dangerous, those same people largely dismiss their own contributions to the problem,” Matus said.
“Almost all our respondents thought they were safe drivers, but were willing to admit that they use their phones in the car all the time, signaling a cognitive disconnect between knowing the risks and taking action.”
