{"id":230439,"date":"2018-03-08T17:23:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T15:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=230439"},"modified":"2018-03-08T17:23:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T15:23:22","slug":"this-data-shows-just-how-dangerous-texting-and-driving-really-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/230439\/this-data-shows-just-how-dangerous-texting-and-driving-really-is\/","title":{"rendered":"This data shows just how dangerous texting and driving really is"},"content":{"rendered":"

Distractions are one of the leading causes of single vehicle road crashes among young people. Young people between the ages of <\/span>18 and 24 are twice as likely to be involved in a singular vehicle crash than those in the 25 to 49 age group. <\/span><\/p>\n

Liam Clarke, commercial manager of the Bakwena N1N4 Toll Road Concessionaire, attributes some of these fatalities to texting or using a mobile phone while behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes about four seconds to read a text on our phones, and another five to reply. That\u2019s about nine seconds with your eyes off the road. Nine seconds on the road is a long time. Couple this with either bad weather, poor visibility, speed or alcohol and you have a disaster waiting to happen,\u201d said Clarke.<\/p>\n

According to the International Transport Forum\u2019s (ITF) Road Safety Annual Report, South Africa has one of the highest road crash rates in the world, with around 25% of those crashes caused by the use of mobile phones while driving.<\/p>\n

The ITF lists the main causes of distraction, noting that<\/span>\u00a0passenger interactions are most prominent, followed by using mobile devices while driving. Other distractions include grooming, eating and drinking and other object interactions.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the group’s 2017 report, it noted that there were 25.2 deaths per 100,000 population attributed to car crashes in 2016, costing the South African economy R143 billion, or 3.5% of GDP.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) reported 14,071 road fatalities in South Africa in 2016, a 9% increase compared to 2015.<\/p>\n

Echoing the sentiments of the international trends, the RTMC found that human factors were the biggest contributors to road fatalities, with human error accounting for 77.5% of all crashes and vehicle factors making up 6% of contributors and road and environmental factors making up 16.5%.<\/p>\n

Clarke said road crashes can also have a socio-economic impact beyond the victims of these crashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking outside of statistics and figures, we must remember that road crashes can lead to victims being disabled and, in turn, losing employment or an income. The death of a breadwinner could result in the rest of the family living in poverty or negatively affecting the psyche of family and friends,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n

Although alcohol and speeding are among the leading factors in South Africa\u2019s road crashes, the use of mobile phones while driving is one of the top causes of driver distraction.<\/p>\n

In South Africa drivers caught using their mobile phones whilst driving can be fined up to R750. In the Western Cape the same offence is also punishable with a fine of R500 and having your cellphone confiscated, where should you want it back will have to pay an additional release fee of R1,140.<\/p>\n

ITF says mobile phone usage while driving affects driver competence, resulting in a 37% decrease in parietal lobe, the part of the brain mostly responsible for language.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Data collected through the Discovery Insure Driver Challenge app, found that a single instance of mobile phone usage represents an average of 52 seconds of distracted driving. At 60km\/h, this is equivalent to driving \u201cblind\u201d for one kilometre and makes the driver four times more likely to have a crash, the study found.<\/p>\n

Clarke said more stringent measures must be put into place to deter the use of mobile phones while driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the stats and fatality records tell us anything, it\u2019s this: driving distracted not only places one\u2019s life in danger, but also the lives of other motorists. Alcohol, fatigue and speeding are all known to perpetuate bad driving, but the use of a cellphone while driving is equally dangerous,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Why using a mobile phone while driving is so dangerous \u2013 even when you\u2019re hands-free<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Distractions are one of the leading causes of single vehicle road crashes among young people, according to an international study published on World Freeways. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":185689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-230439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230439"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230449,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230439\/revisions\/230449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}