Prevent Pandemonium For Perfect Performance

Drivers have a lot more distractions today than they did just a decade ago, and those attention-stealers are to blame for crashes that are costly in terms of both money and lives. Thankfully, the people who see the damage caused by in-car diversions have thrown together this list of tips for managing and avoiding them.

Kurt's CARSTAR Collision Center in Maryville, Illinois is in the business of trying to reverse the mistakes that some people make on the road. At one point, a driver only had an AM radio to distract himself with. Now, any number of vehicles has enough high-tech electronic gadgetry to pilot a space shuttle, and they can all diminish the concentration of a driver.

Following the following tips can reduce the chance of a crash by a large margin and make a trip less stressful for everybody in the vehicle.

•   Do Not Text And Drive – Figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that the risk of a crash is twenty-three times higher for people who are sending and receiving text messages while they drive. That isn't very hard to imagine, since a car going fifty-five miles per hour will go the length of a football field in the four and a half seconds it takes to type or receive a message. Driving while you text is even compared to driving while drunk. The good thing about a text message is that it will be sitting there in your inbox for when there is time to pull over and read it.

•   Limit or eliminate cell phone use while you are driving – A study by Australia’s Monash University Accident Research Centre found that handheld devices like a cell phone raises crash and injury potential by four times what it would be otherwise. If a passenger in the car, let that person do the conversing while you do the driving.

•   Go ahead and use a hands-free device, but only for necessary calls – Carnegie Mellon used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to keep track of the brain activity of people answering a series of true/false questions while simulating driving on a computer screen. They uncovered a 37 percent decrease in the brain’s ability to figure out spatial relationships (such as between the car at speed and other objects) when the “driver” focused on answering the questions. This information suggests that a conversation with a person not in the passenger compartment will diminish the driver’s reflexes behind the wheel.

•   Program your global positioning system before setting out on a trip or errand – Portable and in-dash GPS devices are immensely helpful for getting us where we would like to go, especially if they call out the step-by-step directions. However, don't forget that they are only useful if the driver does not attempt to input information while the vehicle is moving. Most GPS devices even display a legal warning against this sort of action before they can be used.

•   Learn a vehicle’s instruments and adjustment knobs before you even leave the garage – The cars of today have dozens of little control keys, switches and handles that you might need to activate or deactivate while you're on the road, and a driver has to be familiar with them if they really want to avoid distraction. Adjusting the windshield wipers, headlights, radio settings, climate controls, seat height, steering wheel angle, emergency flashers, or any number of other gizmos could be the distraction that causes your car accident.

•   Save eating and drinking for the rest stop – Americans, it seems, have perfected the art of eating and driving, which is why cars made for the U.S. market frequently have more cup holders built in than seats. In fact, NHTSA points out that a driver’s morning cup of coffee and muffin are about as distracting as a cell phone conversation may be.

•   Keep children and pets in the approved seats or areas for them – Crash-test engineers have determined the safest placement for children of various sizes and ages in automobiles. Following applicable federal and state laws also decreases a parent’s chance of diversion while driving because the child will not be as likely to get injured or into trouble in a moving car if restricted. Letting animals roam free within a moving vehicle is not only a terrible idea; but it is illegal in some states as legislators try to crack down on distracted driving.

Kurt's CARSTAR Collision Center in Maryville, Illinois, also fixing cars in Edwardsville, Troy, Collinsville, Glen Carbon, and Highland, want you to know that there are a large number of ways to reduce the amount of dangerous distractions within a vehicle. These tips address just a couple of the easiest ones for people to fix. Anything a driver does to concentrate on the road will improve their chance of a safe arrival.

For more tips on driving and collision repair, visit www.auto-body-maryville-il.com. CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts gives high-quality, reliable repair service in 32 states and 10 Canadian provinces. Just call 618-345-4519 when you need a vehicle repair, and they'll quickly send a tow truck, contact your insurance agency, arrange for a rental car and repair your vehicle.