1….. 2….. 3 seconds.
That’s all it takes. Three, short, little seconds to swipe left, watch a friend’s Snap, or retweet your fav celeb (Chrissy Teigen, I see you girl).
That’s basically no time at all right?
WRONG.
Three seconds could be an entire lifetime gone in a crash due to distracted driving. In those three seconds, a person driving at 60 mph can drive almost the entire 100 yards of a football field. Drivers who are distracted are traveling that distance essentially blindfolded by whatever they are averting their attention to. However, unlike Gronk running into the end zone on Sunday night, drivers do not have a team of offensive linemen to protect them on the road. So any form of distraction, AT ALL, is dangerous and potentially deadly.
I and some of my colleagues at the CT Transportation Safety Research Center were asked to be involved in research for a documentary about the dangers of distracted driving. 3 Seconds Behind the Wheel, follows 8 strangers in CT and FL to capture their driving behaviors and distractions behind the wheel over six months. CTSRC researchers, along with experts from MIT and Cambridge Mobile Telematics, provided analysis and feedback about the behaviors we observed to the documentary crew and Director/Producer, Jennifer Boyd.
The experience was eye-opening and highlighted how unaware someone can be about the frequency with which they engage in distracted driving behaviors. Even more noticeable was how much I and my colleagues could relate to the participants. They were regular people just like us, doing regular every day things. Watching these drivers in their daily lives for six months allowed me to develop a greater appreciation of how easily a driver can become distracted and how normalized these behaviors have become. Distracted driving is most definitely a social issue, much like drunk driving and not wearing a seat belt.
This Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) and Boyd Productions joint project first premiered on CPTV on June 21, 2018 and is set for national release in October 2018. PBS International has also selected 3 Seconds Behind the Wheel as one of twenty documentaries set to be released WORLDWIDE this year!!
Click here or here to read more details about how the documentary came together and all the partners involved, including the CT Dept. of Transportation. To watch the trailer or to purchase a copy of the full length documentary, visit www.3seconds.org.
#3Seconds #CTSRC #SubtractTheDistraction
**Updated: 3 Seconds Behind the Wheel was nominated for two New England Emmy’s in the categories of ‘Documentary’ and ‘Editing’ in 2019.
Drivers Behaving Badly 