Dangerous daydreaming

by Tamsin McCahill on 29.01.08

Another dangerous driver distraction is less easy to guard against. While a policeman can pull you over if he sees you lighting up, or chatting on your phone, being completely lost in thought is hard to detect. It’s just as dangerous, though, accounting for 4% of accidents according to studies from the States.

And if you think you’re not at risk, ask yourself a simple question: how many times have you arrived home from your normal commute with no recollection of how you got there? Did you stop at many red lights? Notice any other drivers? If you can’t answer these questions, your complacency could be putting both yourself and other road users in danger.

So if you’re not thinking about the road, what is going on in your mind while you drive? Well, according to study carried out by Living’s parent – car insurance company MORE TH>N – one million of you are too busy thinking about sex to fully concentrate on the road!

The report into driver behaviour also found that three million British motorists can’t leave the office behind, and are too preoccupied with thoughts about work matters to stop thinking about them on the commute home. Two million of us admit to being lost in thoughts about our families.

MORE TH>N head of insurance Pete Markey said: “It appears many UK drivers are preoccupied and not concentrating on their driving. This could be extremely dangerous, not only to themselves but also to other motorists.”

So how do we stop our thoughts from interfering with our driving? Lisa Dorn, director of driver research at Cranfield University says we should stop believing we’re the brilliant, competent drivers we think we are.

“Research has shown too many drivers consider themselves to be skilled, and therefore think they won’t be involved in a crash. These beliefs increase risk-taking. Drivers need to be shaken out of their complacency and ask themselves: ‘What is it about my driving that could lead to a crash?’”

Read part four-> The UK’s strangest safety tips
Back to introduction-> Car safety - what you can do

IMAGES by Flickr users N_Creatures and miqul