Whether you drive on busy Kentucky roadways every day of the week or merely venture out only once in a while, you’re likely aware of the many risks involved in navigating high-traffic areas. Surprisingly, even small, quiet, low-traffic neighborhood roads can be dangerous if a motorist sharing your space on the road is distracted behind the wheel. Do you know there are three main types of driving distraction?
Although there are many individual behaviors that constitute distractions while driving, most of them can be lumped into three separate categories: cognitive, manual or visual. If you stay alert, are aware of the types of distraction, and are able to recognize signs of each, you may be able to avoid collision. It’s no secret, however, that no matter how careful one driver might be, if another in the vicinity is less so, disaster may strike at any time.
Let’s discuss each distracted driving type
In order to provide you with pertinent information that may help keep you safe while driving, the following list includes each distracted driving category and examples of behavior that signal high risk for injury in each section:
- Cognitive distractions: Do you love to daydream? Many people do. However, doing so while driving is a top cause of distraction and can place the driver and all others nearby at great risk for collision. Listening to podcasts, talking to passengers in the vehicle and conducting work activities by phone while driving are other examples of cognitive distraction.
- Manual distractions: You may be one of many who laud the invention of GPS devices, especially if you consider yourself directionally challenged and often have to stop to ask for directions before you acquired GPS. Fiddling with an electronic gadget, be it a GPS device, hand-held cell phone, dashboard radio or other, creates major manual distractions that often wind up causing fatal accidents.
- Visual distractions: You’ve probably come upon traffic build-up when other drivers strain to get closer looks at accident scenes or other things happening to the side of the road. Reading billboards, watching construction crews work, etc. are all dangerous activities that are best left for times when you’re not driving a car.
You may be able to steer clear of a collision if you notice a driver near you exhibiting one or more of these behaviors, and you’re able to safely maneuver your vehicle to place a great distance between your car and the one with a possibly distracted person at the wheel. This isn’t always possible, however, especially on traffic-laden highways. If you suffer injury in a Kentucky car accident, and you believe the causal factor was a distracted driver, you may be able to recover your losses in court.