NUFAM 2021: BG Verkehr launches campaign "Drive instead of being distracted"
Various studies on traffic accidents, according to BG Verkehr, illustrate: Distraction in road traffic is one of the most common causes of accidents. Depending on the study, between 15 and 25 percent of traffic accidents are due to distraction. A special analysis from Baden-Württemberg in 2018 attributes 19.4 percent of fatalities to distraction. In other words, just in this federal state, 80 people were killed in one year because a driver was not paying attention.
2021: Already 52 truck drivers dead at the end of traffic jams
Distraction is also a hot topic in freight traffic. The monotony of long-distance driving, in particular, leads some truck drivers to engage in other activities while driving. Writing text messages on a smartphone is not the only source of distraction, but it is particularly dangerous because it takes eyes off the road and hands off the steering wheel. The consequences are severe: according to reports from the specialist press, 52 truck drivers died in accidents at the end of traffic jams in the first nine months of this year, five more than in the entire year of 2020. This figure does not include other road users who died in such accidents.
Increasing number of rear-end and lane-change accidents
Distraction plays a particularly important role in rear-end collisions. A look at the nationwide official accident statistics with figures from 2015 to 2018 shows an increasing trend in rear-end collisions with personal injuries caused by semi-truck drivers. The Lower Saxony State Traffic Watch also warns of an increasing number of rear-end and lane-change accidents. Due to the high relevance of these accidents, a working group of prevention experts from BG Verkehr has addressed the issue of distraction – with the involvement of accident researchers (VUFO Dresden) and traffic psychologists (Professor Dr. Mark Vollrath and Dr. Anja Katharina Huemer from the TU Braunschweig).
"When everything goes smoothly in road traffic and no demanding reactions seem necessary, a human weakness comes into play: People lose their concentration and often seek out activities," summarize the heads of the working group, Michael Fischer and Hans Heßner.
Distraction does not begin with grabbing the smartphone. Studies show that the sound of an incoming message, conversations, adjustments to control elements in the vehicle, and many other influences disturb concentration on the driving task. Models of behavior and experiments with driving simulators impressively show how sensitive people are in their concentration when disturbed by additional tasks requiring spatial-coordinative orientation.
"Human attention is divisible, but only to a limited extent. Even during a calm drive, we already perceive a multitude of visual and auditory stimuli. Any further non-driving-related stimulus displaces other important information, so that dangers are quickly overlooked," says Dr. Klaus Ruff, deputy head of prevention at BG Verkehr.
Ruff adds: "The perceived multitasking is an illusion because our brain constantly switches back and forth between different tasks for short periods. The more things it tries to accomplish at once, the worse it performs these tasks. Drivers who are distracted take longer to perceive risks or do not perceive them at all."
Even when phones or navigation systems are voice-controlled, it still costs attention. If observation and judgment of the traffic situation are interrupted, this will be at the expense of quick reaction times.
Films are intended to shake up
To convey these insights to drivers, the working group has developed a series of informational media, which will be presented to member companies and the public as part of a campaign. Several animated and short films on the topic of distraction are eye-openers and demonstrate the mechanisms of distraction. With a 'blind flight calculator', drivers can calculate the distance they travel while being distracted for a certain number of seconds. In a podcast, a truck driver, a traffic psychologist, and an accident researcher discuss how distraction occurs and what practical countermeasures can help. These media are distributed by BG Verkehr's supervisors in member companies. Distraction will also be a focal topic at BG Verkehr's booth at the trucking trade fair NUFAM (September 30 - October 3) and the occupational safety trade fair A+A in Düsseldorf (October 26 - 29).
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