STATEN ISLAND, NY- According to silive.com, speeding is often portrayed as one of the main dangers presented by drivers. In New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio has made traffic safety a major part of his platform, lowering the speed limit has become one of the tools presented as a way to keep people safe.
The speed limit has been reduced, and the city has installed speed cameras near schools, speed bumps in many places and street designs that are focused on slowing people down. The city has paid for advertisements that portray people struggling to cross streets full of speeding drivers and that tell drivers that by traveling at or below 25 miles per hour they can save lives. The message is present in Vision Zero pamphlets and on billboards.
Although speeding has been attracting a lot of negative attention, and although it does pose many risks to drivers, the main cause of traffic accidents is distracted driving, not speeding.
According to statistics from the NYPD, about 48 percent of crashes and caused by inattentive drivers. Speeding was not the second largest cause either. Drivers following too closely took the second spot. Other common causes include improper turning, unsafe lane changes, backing up unsafely, and failure to yield.
Distracted driving occurs when drivers are doing anything that takes their attention away from the road. However, the main cause of distracted driving is people using their smartphones to text, talk, post things online, or any other activities that cause the driver to be looking at a screen and not the road.
While speeding is a problem, distracted driving, the leading cause of accidents across the entire city, should likely be getting more attention.
