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2.0
Road safety
Figures for other types of phone
use while in control of a moving
vehicle are particularly alarming:
26% admit they have checked
messages while driving in the last
12 months, while 19% have written
and sent texts, emails or social
media updates, despite the huge
distractions involved. Finally, one
in seven motorists (14%) say they
have actually used their phones to
take pictures or record videos while
at the wheel.
The 2016 Report on Motoring has
also looked at the wider distractions
reported by drivers. The most
common is tiredness, cited by 40%
of motorists as one of their top five
distractions, followed by passengers
talking (39%) and ’something
interesting happening outside the
car’ (37%). Such distractions,
however, rarely appear in casualty
statistics and accidents attributable
to such distractions are all too often
simply attributed to ‘driver error’.
A fifth (18%) of drivers cited being
distracted by their mobile ringing,
while 11% say using their mobile
is a distraction. Only one in six
motorists (16%) claim that they
don’t get distracted while driving.
While concerns over the behaviour
of other drivers have grown,
more people think that the roads
themselves are safer now than in
the past (46% against 42% in 2015),
and almost two-thirds (63%) believe
that driver-assistance technologies,
which are increasingly common in
the latest generations of vehicles,
are making driving safer. And not
surprisingly, 84% of motorists agree
that cars are safer than they used
to be (86% in 2015).
RAC call to action:
Road safety: see page 88
36
RAC Report on Motoring 2016
“It is interesting to see that tiredness is cited as
the number-one distraction for drivers. One of
the key reasons that people pull off into service
areas is just to have a bit of a break.
But there are issues concerning the limits put on how long
motorists can stay in service areas. If you put the seat back
and get your head down for a couple of hours, then that is
the responsible thing to do, and you don’t expect someone
to come along and slap a charge on you as a result.”
THEO DE PENCIER
Non-executive Board Member
Transport Focus