· The delegate of the Government points out that “76% of drivers recognize distracted driving and more than 20% follow the notifications of their mobile device or speak on the phone without hands free”
· The special surveillance and control campaign will end on October 15
· In the last campaign, 22,308 vehicles were controlled in the C.Valenciana and 1,027 drivers were reported
The delegate of the Government in the Valencian Community. Pilar Bernabé, accompanied by the provincial head of Traffic, Pilar Funez, and the colonel head of the Traffic Sector of the Civil Guard, Francisco Javier Sánchez-Ferragut, visited this morning one of the controls that the General Directorate of Traffic is carrying out within the Campaign of surveillance and control of distractions at the wheel that will take place until October 15. This visit was also attended by volunteers from the Association of Spinal Injuries and Major Physically Disabled Persons (ASPAYM) who attended to raise first-person awareness among drivers about the serious risk of driving distractions.
Distraction as a concurrent factor in fatal accidents occurs in 31% of accidents. The delegate has indicated that “distractions have been consolidated as the most frequent concurrent factor in fatal accidents.” So far this year, fatal accidents in the Valencian Community have increased by 16% and the number of fatalities has risen by 5%.
Therefore, Bernabé has stressed “the importance of this type of campaigns with which it is intended to raise awareness among drivers about the danger of certain actions that distract our attention while driving”. Among the most common causes of distraction at the wheel are the use of the mobile phone. In fact, according to the different studies of the DGT, dialing a phone number on a mobile device while driving multiplies by 12 the risk of suffering an accident or reading and writing messages multiplies by 6 this risk.
The delegate added that “76% of drivers recognize distracted driving, plus 23%, say they check the notifications of their mobile device and 22%, talk on the phone without hands free.”
In addition, the higher the vehicle’s speed, the smaller the driver’s reaction to unforeseen events and the more convenient it is to concentrate fully on the task of driving. In this way, said Barnabas, “distraction and speed become a binomial that very significantly increases the levels of risk during driving.”
In the distraction control campaign carried out in the Valencian Community in September 2022, 22,308 vehicles were controlled (5,932 in the province of Alicante; 2,151 in Castellón and 14,225 in Valencia) and 1,027 drivers were reported (244 in the province of Alicante; 96 in Castellón, and 687 in Valencia).