Don't Drive Distracted- Mom's Week at WSU Campus Car Wreck Display

This past week, Palouse RTPO put on our 2nd car wreck display to promote safe driving on the Palouse. The display was meant to bring awareness to not driving distracted. Distracted Driving can mean many things and many people often are not aware that there are three different types of distracted driving.  Do you know the three types of Distracted Driving?

Manual- Manual is anything that takes one or both hands off of the wheel, like eating or drinking, adjusting car settings, or reaching for objects like purses or wallets. 

Visual- Visual is when drivers take their eyes off the road to do something like consult a map or GPS device or staring at roadside attractions, crashes, or pedestrians. 

Cognitive-Cognitive is anything that takes your mind off of the road such as talking to passengers, on a cell phone, or even just allowing your mind to wander.

At the beginning of this week, we did run into a few snags with this display because of the mass amounts of rain and flooding in the Palouse starting Monday. After putting the display up Monday morning and rushing to get everything laminated because of the rain with the full design of two tripods, a poster board and text messages to surround the car they were all destroyed within twenty four hours, thanks to the non-stop rain that we have had. So a third larger display was created that was simple and stable enough to withstand the rain and wind this coming week. 

We are so glad that everyone in our community stayed safe during the 2019 Pullman Flood.

We hope that this banner and the gruesome display of this wrecked car showed the community what the outcome could look like if they decide to text and drive or in general drive distracted.

Please avoid messing with your car settings, eating and drinking, messing with your GPS, or talking on a cell phone!!! Let's all make better choices behind the wheel!

ALSO Realize Hands Free Cellphone Devices are not ANY safer. 

As explained earlier Cognitive Distracted Driving is one of the main ways that people drive distracted. If your mind isn't on the road you aren't focused on what is going on around you. Check out this article by the Washington Post to read about how the Myth Busters disprove that Hands Free Devices are safer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/08/20/is-hands-free-cell-phone-use-really-safer-for-driving-we-asked-mythbusters/?utm_term=.723f029c1074

Thanks to many of our campaign partners for working with us to make this display happen! Hope it will give you all something to talk about with your family and spread the word!