Many people fall short into realizing that distracted driving is one of the many reasons why they don’t get the highly sought after affordable insurance rates. Statistics indicate that people are highly vulnerable to accidents because they are either too busy attending phone calls or i-pods while driving.
However, if you talk to these people, you’d certainly get a unanimous opinion that behind-the-wheel activities should not happen in the first place. Unfortunately, only few of them follow their own advice, hence, the increasing number of car accidents continued to happen all year through.
A recent report released indicates that Canadians get distracted a lot on the road than their counterparts in the south – the Americans. Why is this so? Let’s find out.
Canadians and Americans share many similar things from language to culture. However, certain distinct differences exist between these two great nations. For one, Canadian citizens tend to follow their state laws rigorously compared with their American counterparts.
The reason why Americans behave this way brings us back many centuries ago. It’s probably because how the first settlers arrived in each country. During the early stage of occupation, the “wild west” was literally wild. There was nothing – no real laws or government for that matter. Few strong and ruthless men control most of the towns with their gangs, scaring people here and there. At that time, violence is a common occurrence. Eventually, U.S. marshals gained foothold one by one into these lawless communities and began imposing laws and order. This experience left a strong impact to the American upbringing.
On the other hand, Canadians were spared from experiencing fear and tumult because of the presence of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) long before the first settlers arrived. In short, laws were established in many communities already.
Of course, these things happened long time ago – before people started to wonder about “walkie-talkies” and combustible engines. Unfortunately, when it comes to using mobile phones while driving, we see a very slim difference between how Canadians and Americans would use them.
Car Safety and Statistics
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) collects information about traffic accidents. Reports indicate that about 500,000 recorded car accidents in the U.S. is associated to distracted driving and about 2% or 10,000 of these were fatal. Careless driving holds the top spot that accounts as high as 80%. Canada’s survey showed similar data as well.
What’s interesting is that American people fully support laws that prohibit drivers from using their mobile units or devices while driving. Unfortunately, among the 90% surveyed individuals, more than half of them admit doing it continuously. In Canada, most drivers are aware of the ill effects of distracted driving but only ¼ of them have discontinued such practice.
So, what’s the result to all these chaos? Increased insurance rates and Canadian drivers ultimately end up paying more.
Researchers have all agreed that both drivers (in Canada and U.S.) do not fully understand what distracted driving means. Certainly, using mobile phones or hand-held devices will distract driving but so is eating, turning the radio, changing CDs or just even talking to their passengers.
