Do You Use Your Smartphone While Driving? You’re Flirting with Danger

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One of the most dangerous distractions on the road today is using your smartphone while driving. It might feel like a harmless peek at your screen, but time spent looking away from the road can have serious consequences. Many drivers underestimate the necessary focus required to drive a vehicle safely.

One of the main causes of accidents is distracted driving. If you’ve been hit by a distracted driver, consulting a car crash injury attorney is crucial. The expertise of this legal professional will help you get the compensation you deserve.

Whether you’re texting, making a call, or using an app, all of these actions take your mind off driving. Knowing the risks involved will enable you to avoid risky driving conditions and make wise decisions.

Here are some reasons why using your smartphone while driving is dangerous.

Decreased Reaction Time

Driving while using a smartphone greatly reduces your reaction time. Drivers must be alert of everything around them, including pedestrians, other cars, and road signs. Looking at your phone makes you vulnerable to sudden changes like a car stopping in front of you or a pedestrian crossing the street.

According to studies, drivers who text behind the wheel are more likely to rear-end other vehicles or fail to stop in time. In those important times when a fast response is needed, a distracted driver’s reaction is delayed, usually with disastrous results.

Cognitive Distractions

The mental distraction from your phone can kill you even if you’re not really touching it. Engaging in phone conversations splits your mental attention between the conversation and driving.

Your brain can only pay so much attention to any one task. Any loss of focus while driving could have disastrous results. Studies indicate that texting and phone conversations compromise your capacity to evaluate road conditions and make wise decisions.

The loss of focus increases the possibility of drifting into other lanes, miss crucial traffic signals, or changing lanes unsafely. Basically, you are more prone to making a risky mistake if you pay less attention to the road.

Visual Distractions

One of the most common sources of visual distractions while driving is a smartphone. Even a few seconds of staring at a screen pulls your eyes off the road, which is rather dangerous.

If you’re driving at 55 mph, and for just five seconds, you take your eyes off the road, it means you have effectively gone the length of a football field without looking at the road.

Your car might drift in that period, miss crucial road signals, or fail to stop in time to prevent a collision. The danger is clear: looking away from the road could be fatal.

Poor Judgment of Distance and Speed

The way a smartphone affects your judgment is one of the most overlooked dangers of using it while driving. Drivers who use cellphones are less likely to precisely judge distances between their car and others, which might lead to following another vehicle too closely or break speed limits. Misjudging distance or speed puts you and others on the road in immediate danger.