EDMONTON – Some Edmonton teens got behind the wheel on Friday to learn first-hand about the risks of distracted driving. And as they learned, it’s not just texting and driving that can be dangerous.
“A lot of times there’s some everyday distractions that people don’t even think about, such as taking a drink of water or putting on chapstick, eating in the vehicle, dropping something in the vehicle and reaching down to pick it up,” says Rick Lang, manager of Driver Education at the Alberta Motor Association.
On a closed course at Castrol Raceway, young drivers were asked to perform some of those tasks while trying to navigate through an obstacle course. The results were eye-opening.
“It proved itself to be quite difficult,” admitted one girl.
“If I was going a bit faster I don’t think I’d do as well,” said Omar Abou-Absi. “It sort of made me say ‘wow, that little thing can make you distracted.'”
Studies have shown texting and driving and drinking and driving are almost identical in terms of increasing a person’s risk behind the wheel. Other everyday distractions are not that far behind.
“All it takes is a couple of seconds off the attention span, and there’s the crash,” said Acting Staff Sgt. Kelly Rosnau, with EPS.
“We all believe that we can multi-task, and unfortunately, that’s what distracted driving is. We believe that we can multi-task and operate a vehicle at 60 km/hr without any effect on our abilities,” he added.
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In reality, the effects can range from getting honked at or swerving, to hitting something or, worse, someone.
Even though the only items knocked down during Friday’s course were pylons, the drivers who took part in the driving test seem to have gotten the message about the real potential consequences of distracted driving.
“We all think we’re invincible and that nothing can touch us,” said Abou-Absi. “If we were to put every teen in the world through something like this, they would realize that they aren’t right and aren’t invincible, that they could just hurt themselves.”
Lang hopes that the teens who took part in the exercise will now spread the message to their peers. Because so far, police say it doesn’t seem to have sunken in.
Since the beginning of the year, Edmonton police have issued more than 1,700 distracted driving tickets, each ticket costing $172.
With files from Ross Neitz, Global News
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