Over
the last weekend of October there were six fatalities in four separate car
crashes in Manitoba. RCMP officers say that distracted driving was a factor in
the accidents. In the age of technological conveniences at our fingertips, it
is difficult to consider what is at stake when behind the wheel. Forgot to
apply mascara? Need a bite of that sandwich? Want to switch songs or text a
friend? Do it while you’re pulled over to reduce your chance of collision by
80%.
So what exactly are the risks of
various distracted driving activities? The Canadian Automobile Association summarizes
them in the table below.
Desensitizing to Risk
While
texting and driving is obviously a large risk, even holding your phone and
chatting is a hazard. If your odds of coming face to face with a shark
increased 1-23 times, would you get out of the water? What if you could just
swim peacefully without any risk at all? It turns out humans are really bad at
calculating risk. We use a combination of logic and intuition to assess everyday
dangers, but more often rely on our gut feeling. Harvard instructor David
Ropiek discusses the concept of the Perception Gap: being afraid of relatively
smaller threats and less afraid of relatively big ones. You may drive every
single day to work while sipping a coffee and e-mailing your boss without
incident, therefore you desensitize to any perceived risk. You may travel less
frequently on airplanes, so the associated danger ‘feels’ more imminent.
However, we all logically know which risk is greater. We also know that it only takes one glance at
a playlist to miss a child running out into the street.
The Good News
The
advances in our modern era fortunately bring conveniences to our conveniences. The
Bluetooth Gods have bestowed upon us the capability to speak with someone
hands-free. Books are available as audio. Green smoothies are a welcome
alternative to a take-out box nestled in the passenger seat next to chopsticks.
But we’ll still have to prep our kid’s
belongings, makeup, and/or GPS before our journey. Gone are the days of
cruising in that 1964 mustang seat belt-free with a metal baby chair tied to the
bench seat.
We know better now.
Marchella Mafrica
Communications Specialist
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