Tune in to Road Safety Week 2013! - Day Five
It’s day 5 of national Road Safety Week! To help us all ‘Tune In’ to road safety, Field Fisher Waterhouse in conjunction with Brake are providing information about the various distractions that can affect us when driving, along with advice about how to avoid these distractions.
Distractions come in many forms, one of which can be using a sat nav. When correctly used, a sat nav can be a useful driving aid, and can be safer than other forms of navigation, like bulky maps.
However, we need to make sure we use our common sense when using sat navs, keeping our attention on the road ahead and not blindly following all the directions our sat navs might come out with. This is because road layouts can change, and sat naves can sometimes be wrong, so it might occasionally be safer to ignore a sat navs directions.
We also need to make sure that we aren’t taking our eyes off the road to fiddle with our sat navs, for instance by changing or entering in an address. Adjusting a sat nav while driving distracts from the task at hand, with potentially devastating consequences. For example, in September 2012, a woman who had been looking at her sat nav for at least 18 seconds while driving at 40-50mph hit and killed a cyclist in Berkshire.
Brake’s advice when using sat nav is to use a bit of common sense when following their directions, and to only fiddle with them when we’re pulled over and parked, and when it is safe to do so.
To make a personal commitment to always staying focused behind the wheel, visit the Brake site and sign our Pledge to drive safely today!
Distractions come in many forms, one of which can be using a sat nav. When correctly used, a sat nav can be a useful driving aid, and can be safer than other forms of navigation, like bulky maps.
However, we need to make sure we use our common sense when using sat navs, keeping our attention on the road ahead and not blindly following all the directions our sat navs might come out with. This is because road layouts can change, and sat naves can sometimes be wrong, so it might occasionally be safer to ignore a sat navs directions.
We also need to make sure that we aren’t taking our eyes off the road to fiddle with our sat navs, for instance by changing or entering in an address. Adjusting a sat nav while driving distracts from the task at hand, with potentially devastating consequences. For example, in September 2012, a woman who had been looking at her sat nav for at least 18 seconds while driving at 40-50mph hit and killed a cyclist in Berkshire.
Brake’s advice when using sat nav is to use a bit of common sense when following their directions, and to only fiddle with them when we’re pulled over and parked, and when it is safe to do so.
To make a personal commitment to always staying focused behind the wheel, visit the Brake site and sign our Pledge to drive safely today!