Distracted driving more dangerous than speeding.

I've known this for years, but after an extensive year long study, reserchers came to the same conclusion that I came to on my own from personal experience and observations. An ABC News article titled "Study: Distraction Behind Most Car Crashes" stated that "Distracted drivers were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes, says a study released Thursday by the government." It mentioned that "Data from police reports had estimated that driver inattention was a factor in about 25 percent of crashes.", which doesn't surprise me because of what happened after the last time I was rearended. I had stopped behind another vehicle at a red light, and about five seconds later, I was hit from behind by a compact car driven by a young lady. When the State Trooper showed up to do the paperwork, she said that the driver must have been going too fast, because otherwise she would have been able to stop in time. I am pretty certain that she wasn't paying adequate attention to the road ahead of her, and I didn't see any evidence of excessive speed. Without examining the accident scene, the Trooper made the assumption that the driver was speeding, which is probably the result of constant bombardment of propaganda that claims that speeding kills and heavy brainwashing in school and the police academy. The study was conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The NHTSA's report stated that "Driving-related inattention to the forward roadway was actually shown to be safer than normal, baseline driving (odds ratio of 0.45). This was not surprising as drivers who arechecking their rear-view mirrors are generally alert and engaging in environmental scanning behavior." "An eyeglance directed at a rear-view mirror is a safety-enhancing activity in the larger context of driving while eyeglances at objects inside the vehicle are not safetyenhancing. It is important to remember that scanning the driving environment is an activity that enhances safety as long as it is systematic and the drivers’ eyes return to the forward view in under 2 seconds." An interesting finding was that drivers who were driving between 0 and 40 mph were much more likely to get into an accident than the ones who were driving at higher speeds, and loss of control due to excessive speed was a factor in only 8% of accidents, according to the Results of the 100-Car Field Experiment. So remember folks, pay attention to the road, because the average person is about ten times more likely to get into an accident when driving while distracted than when speeding.