We came across a very interesting post on the CarTalk.com blog, which describes an attempt to assign a financial value to the damage caused by Distracted Driving related accidents.

Cost of Distracted DrivingThe author uses two sets of figures for costing (one from the National Safety Council and another set from the Federal Highway Administration – dating back to 2008) and 2008/2009 accident statistics to calculate an approximate dollar value for fatalities, injuries and damage associated with Distracted Driving.

The numbers give an indication of the large financial toll of these accidents (in addition to the terrible human cost) – for example, using the much lower NSC costs and 2009 data, a nationwide annual cost of $500 million is suggested.

Using the Federal figures (which the Kansas Department of Highway Transportation uses for it’s offical statistics) shows a cost increase for Kansas alone from $27 million (using the NSC calculations) to $82 million per year. Extrapolated out to national stats this would indicate a massive financial burden (as much as $1.5 billion perhaps) that could be reduced considerably by the application of policies, education and technology.

See the full post at: http://cartalk.com/ddc/?p=740

Blank-IT has been designed specifically to address the problem of driver distraction caused by in-vehicle computers and laptops. It is easily installed, doesn’t rely on 3rd party input such as GPS, is fully customisable for different working environments and will help businesses conform with distracted driving legislation and OH&S requirements.

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