(BPT) - Many people who encounter a car weaving wildly out of
its lane, speeding up and slowing down randomly, veering into
oncoming traffic or breezing through stop signs will immediately
think 'drunk driver.' While drunk driving is an extremely
dangerous hazard on American roadways, this behavior is just as
easily associated with sober but distracted drivers - who can be
just as dangerous as drivers who have had too much to drink. In
fact, distracted driving is so out of hand that U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called it 'an epidemic.'
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 3,092 people
died in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2010, the most
recent year for which there is data available, and an estimated
416,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a
distracted driver. 'The dangers of distracted driving are
extremely real and completely avoidable,' says James Fults, vice
president of personal auto insurance at Fireman's Fund Insurance
Company. 'All of us, no matter