As many Georgia residents have switched to remote working, their increasing computer time has been significant. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, they believe that computer use is leading to an uptick in zoned-out driving. This has resulted in a surge in roadway deaths.
What is zoned-out driving?
Zoned-out driving occurs when a person’s concentration on the task of driving lapses. Many times, people will be thinking about other things and put their bodies on autopilot for driving. It’s this cognitive overload from computer usage that an NHTSA is blaming for motor vehicle accidents. They believe that the mental strain of spending more time behind the screen is reducing a person’s ability to concentrate on the task of driving.
What do the surveys show?
In order to determine whether or not their hypothesis was correct, there were various surveys performed to see how the increasing computer usage relates to an increase in accidents. One study surveyed 1,819 adult motorists about their ability to concentrate on the roadway after participating in video conferences. 54% of those surveyed stated that they had trouble concentrating after work meetings that were done remotely. Even more astounding, 65% of the younger generation Z drivers reported losing focus while they were driving.
Distracted driving has been a common cause of motor vehicle accidents for quite some time. The reality is that the distractions just continue to change as the years go by. Apart from zoned-out driving, using cell phones while driving is another leading cause of many motor vehicle accidents around the country.
Every year the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration publishes data regarding motor vehicle accidents around the country. As part of their study, researchers try to identify the main causes of various types of accidents so that people can change their behavior to avoid them. One of the most common problems throughout 2020 that caused a large percentage of motor vehicle accidents included zoned-out driving due to increased screen time.