JACKSON, Tenn. — April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month and the National Road Safety Foundation says education and intervention can help limit distracted driving.
Driver distraction continues to be a major factor in crashes that results in thousands of fatalities and more than 289,000 serious injuries nationwide every year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The National Distracted Driving Coalition says distracted driving is grossly under-reported, and they estimate from 25 to 30% of fatal crashes involve distracted driving, which translates to an estimated 11,000 to nearly 14,000 deaths every year.
“And every time that you get in a vehicle, you have the ability to kill yourself or someone else. So we definitely want everyone to put down their phones, to buckle up, to make sure that they are driving as safely as they can, not just for themselves, but everybody else on our roadways,” said Tammy Gweedo McGee, founder of the Gweedo Memorial Foundation.
The NHTSA says there are more than 325,000 serious injuries every year from distracted driving crashes.
