Kent fire officials say distracted driving occurs way too often

One of the most common emergencies that the Kent Regional Fire Authority responds to is a vehicle crash. In many of these cases, distracted driving is a contributing factor.

Distracted driving can be defined as any action(s) that takes your hands (manual), eyes (visual), and/or mind (mental) off the primary duty of operating a vehicle, according to a Kent RFA media release on Monday.

While people think of distracted driving being the use of a hand-held cellphone or of texting, in fact eating/drinking, children, smoking, listening to music, and pets on a driver’s lap can all be forms of distractions. Even devices designed to help us drive, such as navigation systems can be manual, visual, or mental distractions.

In 2014 nationally, 3,179 people died and 431,000 were injured in vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver, according to the Kent RFA release. Thirty-eight percent of those fatalities involved cellphone use.

Cellphone/texting citations carry a fine of $124 in Washington state. The months of May through August are when most people are cited by police. In 2013, that was more than 16,000 tickets statewide.

Studies have shown that texting simultaneously involves manual, visual, and mental distractions and is among the worst of all driver distractions. At any given time across the country, it is estimated that 100,000 drivers are texting.

The biggest danger is that texting typically takes a driver’s eyes off the road for five seconds. At freeway speeds, that is driving more than the length of a football field while not looking at the road.

Kent fire officials urge drivers to be responsible, concentrate on the task of driving and do not become a highway statistic or make someone else one.