If you look at car accident stats from around the country in 2025, you’ll probably notice something quickly. You will notice that in many reports regarding what caused the accidents, the term “distracted driving” or “distracted driver” will come up. That’s because many times, when two cars collide, it’s because one of the drivers let something steal their attention.
Locating a personal injury lawyer following a distracted driving accident often becomes necessary if you have some economic or non-economic losses for which you feel you should get compensation. Even if you’re not in a situation where a distracted driver ran into your vehicle, though, you should know the most common things that distract drivers in the modern era. If you know about these potential distractions, then you can avoid them, and you can evade many of the worst car accidents.
Smartphones
If you look at many car accident reports these days, you’ll see that many of them feature smartphones. You might have a driver who tried to check a text from a friend, and they took their eyes off of the road ahead for a moment. Maybe they tried to call someone while driving.
You might even have a motorist who tries to update their social media status while driving. It sounds wildly dangerous, but some drivers think nothing of using their cell phones for various reasons while they’re behind the wheel.
That’s obviously inappropriate, and it’s something you need to avoid as a driver if you want to keep yourself and other motorists around you safe. You can put your smartphone in the glove compartment, in your purse, in the center consol, or anywhere else you know it won’t distract you while you’re driving.
Vehicle Navigation Systems
Vehicle navigation systems often a play in many modern distracted driving cases as well. If you buy a new car, you’ll find a touchscreen to be a standard feature. Virtually every new vehicle model has them.
You can use the vehicle’s navigation system to get somewhere you have never visited before. You just type in the address and then go where the car directs you.
However, as you’re driving, you may feel that you want to look at the screen, which normally features a map through which you’re navigating in real time. If you glance at the screen with your peripheral vision while keeping most of your attention on the road, you should do fine. If you stare at the screen to try to calculate the distance to the next turn you need to make, though, you may cause a crash.
You can either glance at your vehicle’s screen while it’s navigating for you with your peripheral vision, or else you can ask a passenger seated next to you if they can handle the navigating chores. Just make sure not to put all of your focus on the screen long enough to slam into the car ahead of you.
Passengers in the Car
Speaking of passengers in the car with you, they can distract you as well if you’re not careful. If you have someone seated right next to you, then you can probably have a conversation with them while you are driving that won’t cause an accident. Maybe you are starting to have a more intense conversion, though.
In such an instance, the conversation can involve you to the point where you’re not focusing enough on the road ahead. Maybe you start verbally fighting with the person sitting next to you.
If that happens, then you might cause an accident. The same thing may occur if you have some individuals in the backseat taking up your attention.
You can speak to someone in the car with you, whether they’re seated next to you or in the back, but don’t let them distract you so that you cause a wreck. It happens more times than you might think.
Billboards or Other Advertisements
Other drivers cause accidents because they let billboards on the highway distract them. If you’re driving along, and you see a clever billboard, it might steal your attention for a few seconds. Maybe it shows a juicy steak that you can get at a restaurant at the next exit, and it makes your mouth water.
Much like the vehicle’s navigation system, you can glance at a billboard, but don’t let it take away your attention from the task of driving too much. Staring at a billboard and not stopping in time because a car right in front of you slammed on the brakes unexpectedly can certainly cause an accident.
You might also let an ad on a bus stop bench distract you, or perhaps there’s a sale sign in the window of a store you’re passing that grabs your attention for a moment. Glancing at it’s usually okay, but make sure to keep the majority of your focus on the road ahead.
Food and Drinks
You might also see plenty of cases where accidents happened because a driver let some food or a drink distract them. Maybe you like to stop by your favorite fast-food restaurant once a week. Perhaps you have a particular go-to item at McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, or somewhere else.
You can get your favorite item and eat it in the restaurant or in the parking lot if you just went through the drive-through. You might also buy it, have it in the car with you, and take it home or to work and eat it there.
If you get your favorite item and let it distract you while you’re driving, though, that’s a potential recipe for disaster. If you’re trying to open a ketchup packet or attempting to do something else food-related, and that distracts you too much, it’s another common situation where you can cause an accident before you know it.
If you can avoid all of these common distractions, then you can evade many car accident situations as well.