Health & Fitness
Safety on the Road Starts with YOU!
Nowadays, your car is your kitchen table, portable office, and multimedia entertainment center-all under one roof! Drivers find it hard to concentrate on the road, but it's time to get back to basics.
It used to be our cars were just a mode of transportation. We would drive from point A to point B, all the while listening to our favorite radio station, keeping our hands at '10 and 2', and waiting for the green light before making a right turn. If you wanted to call someone, you waited until you got home to pick up the phone that lived on the kitchen wall.
Nowadays, our motor vehicles have morphed into a kitchen table, a portable office and a multimedia entertainment center - all under one roof! It’s no wonder we have a hard time concentrating on the road in front of us and the cars around us.
It’s time to get back to basics - turn off the gadgets, get our hands back on the wheel and keep our eyes on the road.
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Nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in 2009 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) in accidents involving a distracted driver, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Talking or texting on your cell phone, trying to punch in your destination or looking at the map on your GPS, eating on the go, applying makeup and changing the radio station are just some examples of behaviors that, while you are driving, can distract you long enough so you wind up in a crash.
Find out what's happening in New Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
In 2007, New Jersey became the fourth state to make it a primary offense for motorists to talk on or text with a handheld wireless phone or electronics communication device while driving.
Motorists can avoid the fine, and, more importantly, save a life by making simple lifestyle changes:
- Leave a few extra minutes to grab a bite in your kitchen counter or eat at your desk.
- Let calls go to voicemail on your cell phone and pull over or wait until you have parked the vehicle to read texts or check your Facebook updates. Your friends can and will wait, honest!
- Apply makeup at home.
- Program the GPS before you pull out of the driveway.
Safety on the road starts with YOU!
Courtesy of Diana Starace, injury prevention coordinator for RWJ's Level I Trauma Center. Starace is among the coordinators of a Distracted Driving Town Hall meeting being held on Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the hospital’s Arline and Henry Schwartzman Courtyard. This event is hosted by the Level I Trauma Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. For more information and to register, call 1-888-MD-RWJUH.
