Did you know, April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month?  During the month of April, the Oregon City Police Department will be participating in the 8th National Distracted Driving Awareness month.  With grant funds from the Oregon Department of Transportation, officers will be conducting extra enforcement patrols specifically targeting distracted driving.  The primary focus of these patrols is to educate drivers and help raise awareness on the dangers of distracted driving. 

So, what is distracted driving?  Distraction occurs when a driver diverts attention to something not related to driving that uses the driver's eyes, ears, hands or mind.  There are four types of driver distraction:

• Visual - looking at something other than the road
• Auditory - hearing something not related to driving
• Manual - handling something other than the steering wheel
• Cognitive - thinking about something other than driving

Most distractions involve more than one of these types, both a sensory - eyes, ears or touch - and a mental component.

DISTRACTED DRIVING IN OREGON

• From 2014-2018 there were 13,603 fatal and injury crashes resulting in 137 fatalities and 20,992 injuries caused by crashes involving a distracted driver in Oregon (all ages).

• 2014-2018 There were 1,193 fatal and injury crashes involving a driver (all ages) reported to have been using a cell phone at the time of the crash: 18 fatalities and 1,752 people injured.

The Oregon City Police Department wants to remind everyone to Park Your Phone and be aware of your surroundings when operating a motor vehicle.  Your life or someone else’s depends on it.

https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Safety/Documents/DistractedDriverBrochure.pdf

https://youtu.be/TAAgq0rQMtE