There may be many in Annapolis that do not view eating and drinking while driving (non-alcoholic beverages) to be particularly dangerous due to such actions being viewed as being quite natural. Like most, you might say that you do not even focus heavily on what you are eating while you are actually doing it. Yet a further examination of the types of distractions that drivers encounter reveals that eating while behind the wheel can indeed be distracting.
Research authored in a joint effort between The Auto Alliance and The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons reveals there to be three common forms of driving distractions:
- Manual
- Visual
- Cognitive
When one eats while driving, they have to remove at least one hand from the steering wheel to grasp whatever it is they are eating. Avoiding spills and messes also requires that they divert a portion of their attention and vision from the road to their food or drink. This might only take a moment, yet you can imagine the heightened risk that is present if that moment occurs as they are driving towards you on the roadway.
Yet perhaps what is most dangerous about eating while driving is not necessarily the length or type of distractions themselves, but rather the frequency with which it occurs. Study data shared by The New York Daily News shows that 70 percent of drivers admit to eating while driving, while 83 percent admit to drinking beverages behind the wheel. Thus, you could reasonably be at a higher risk of encountering an eating driver on the road than you would a drunk driver. To know if the driver that hit you may have been busy eating when the collision occurs, look for telltale signs like stains or spills on their clothing, or food wrappers in their vehicle.
