When Haneen Saqer, Ewart de Visser, and Jonathan Strohl arrived at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Virginia to talk about the perils of distracted driving, they thought they would be addressing a group of 100 students. Instead, they faced an auditorium of 700 students along with reporters from ABC News and NPR. After all, the trio — who are members of the George Mason University student group Distractions n’ Driving (DnD) — had just come to share their graduate research in Human Factors and Applied Cognition.
Watch coverage of the program from this ABC 7 News Clip:
In 2009, 1 in 5 injury crashes involved distracted driving*. This trend is more prominent among teen populations. Of fatal crashes involving drivers under the age of 20, 16%were distracted while driving*. Devices designed for communication, entertainment and productivity are now rapidly becoming driving hazards. Increasingly, driver use of mobile technologies (cell phones, navigation systems, music devices) while operating vehicles result in crashes and injuries.
Beginning 2010, psychology graduate students from George Mason University’s Arch Lab sought to educate young drivers on the dangers of distracted driving. By explaining the basic human factors principles involved in driving, reviewing the current research findings on distracted driving, and demonstrating these dangers via an interactive simulation, the Distractions N Driving team has reached thousands of students.
