Distracted Driver Awareness Month for Road Electrician Safety
April is Distracted Driver Awareness Month – a nationwide observance seeking to promote responsible driving. It is one of the concerns for road electrician safety that this month’s observation aims to highlight more in keeping drivers safe.
Among the primary reasons accidents on the road happen is because of distracted driving. In a 2019 report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,142 vehicle crashes due to distracted driving led to death.
Distractions take away the focus of the driver behind the steering wheel towards other movement or sights that catches their attention. Thus, the Distracted Driver Awareness Month aims to shed light on this issue to make drivers put their focus back on their safe driving. This April observance serves as a reminder that road accidents can be prevented, especially in incidents that happened due to distracted driving. All it takes is keeping distractions away when taking control of the vehicle.
What Is Meant by Distracted Driving?
Distracted driving happens when an individual has distractions while driving. The distractions can be any of the following that affects the attention of the individual behind the wheel:
- Visual – anything that takes away the sight of the driver from the road
- Cell phone use – is one of the most common distractions when either texting or holding the phone to make a call
- Unrelated movements – reaching out to other stuff inside the vehicle
- Conversations – talking to passengers or, at times, even an argument while driving
- Cognitive – taking away the focus on driving by thinking of other things
These are a few of the distractions that divert a driver’s attention from the road. Instead of maintaining safe driving, they will take care of unnecessary actions not related to taking control of the steering wheel. In just a fraction of a second, the lost attention due to distracted driving could lead to untoward incidents, sometimes leading to injury or, worse, death.
Incidents from distracted driving affect the majority of teenage drivers, with 60% of older teens distracted by texting or emailing. Aside from teenage drivers, an average of 4% to 7% of adults from 21-year-olds to 75 plus-year-olds had at least one form of distraction at the time of the vehicle crash. Some of them could be driving on their way to work or are fulfilling job-related driving activities, such as road electricians who conduct vital electrical-related functions.
Keeping Road Electricians Safe
The function of road electricians is crucial to the community as they bring vital electrical installations, do urgent repairs, or deliver important electrical devices. Additionally, road electricians service different locations. With their trucks filled with electrical equipment and a variety of devices to do their jobs, it’s important for road electricians to not have distractions while driving.
Distracted driving that leads to accidents only hampers their operations. Thus, observing the Distracted Driver Awareness Month is key to realigning efforts toward safe driving.
During the Distracted Driver Awareness Month, more electrical firms are also considering workplace safety. Driving on the road during active working hours is a reason to keep a high level of professionalism. This is especially true for road electricians that need to get from point A to point B to service various electrical installations. Electrical contractors need to implement a workplace policy that considers road electrician safety.
For this reason, several contractors at Power Partner MN join the community in addressing distracted driving. It is one of their goals to pursue road electrician safety by implementing sound policies. Road electricians from Power Partner MN electrical contractors go through the necessary training in line with their jobs, particularly in ways to prevent distractions when driving.