What we learn about fighting the coronavirus could help us thwart car accidents. It’s a simple lesson.
Prevention in terms of ownership can help us contain the public health crisis from COVID-19, and it can do the same with the distracted driving epidemic. Masks are not an absolute guarantee against contagious transmission, and leaving a phone out of range in the car does not eliminate all potential driving hazards. But in any case, such protective measures can significantly reduce the likelihood of harm.
Cell phone use has more than doubled in the past decade, according to the Pew Research Center. And a staggering amount of that usage happens while driving, according to a study conducted by State Farm earlier this year.
Despite the widely recognized danger, many people adamantly insist on using their phone to make calls, text messages, and snap selfies while behind the wheel. State Farm research shows that 9 out of 10 drivers report distracted driving behavior – 9 out of 10. Perhaps we shouldn’t call it a “smart” phone when we use it so often for things that are far from smart .
The need for preventive measures is particularly urgent for the riskiest motorists who are under 25 years of age. Car accidents are the leading cause of serious injuries in this population group, and accidents have been the leading cause of death in this age group for decades.
This is true for two reasons. The prefrontal cortex of the brain, the part that processes judgment, is not fully developed until you are in your mid-20s. And novice drivers lack the experience essential to developing safe driving skills. As a result, these drivers are more likely to have accidents than others, and distractions (mostly from texting, talking, or interacting with social media platforms on phones) lead to more such accidents than any other cause.
For a long time, we’ve relied primarily on laws and penalties to encourage safer driving habits. And while there is certainly a way to solve this problem, we’ve also recently had success with a Carrot: a smartphone app that rewards young drivers who do without those phones while driving. Points earned for driving safely can be redeemed for gift cards for food and other prizes. And the app works. Our preliminary estimate shows a 65% reduction in cell phone use behind the wheel for the younger, accident-prone age group. In trying to minimize risk and keep the little ones behind the wheel, it helps to know when and where the carrot is more promising than the whip.
It also helps to know that the messenger is often as important as the message. That reality led us to create Teens in the Driver Seat, the first peer-based program of its kind in the United States. And after 20 years, the young people who run the program have distracted driving high on their list of priorities.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of distracted driving, and there are no magical cures for the most risk-prone drivers.
The possibilities of laws are also limited. Too often we pass laws that force us as citizens to do what we as humans should voluntarily do – which brings me back to the concept of personal responsibility.
Benjamin Franklin was right. Prevention is usually much cheaper (and easier) than treatment. This applies to the outbreak of a fatal disease, but also to the spread of fatal behavior.
Russell Henk is a senior research engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. He wrote this column for the Dallas Morning News.
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