As we head into the last day of Promote Safe Teen Driving Week, Disney/Pixar teams up with the U.S. Department of Transportation to give us this entertaining public service announcement about distracted driving.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Yna_VYECg
The clip is obviously a cross-promotional tie-in to the launch of the sequel to the popular Pixar movie Cars. Hopefully the hype will help raise awareness of this important issue.
A few statistics to ponder:
- 20 percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving.
- In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving. (FARS and GES)
- The age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under-20 age group – 16 percent of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving. (NHTSA)
- Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
- Using a cell phone use while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)
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