8 Most Dangerous Things You Do in Your Car

Somewhere in Montana, just after midnight on Saturday night, a 30-year-old guy will hop into his car and commute to his overnight shift. His drive will take him down a curvy two-lane road that leads to a stop sign. There, he’ll make a left into the parking lot where he works.

Our guy doesn’t realize it, but research suggests he’s a dead man driving. His commute, statistically speaking, is one of the most dangerous in America. Why?

• Saturday between midnight and 3 a.m. is the most dangerous time to drive in America.
• Guys his age are at highest risk of dying in a car accident.
• Montana has the worst fatal-accident rate per miles driven than any state in the union (Massachusetts has the best).
• More than 60 percent of fatal accidents happen on two-lane undivided roads, and a third of those around curves.
• Stop signs are more dangerous than traffic signals.
• Left turns are more dangerous than right turns or even lane changes.

So the odds are stacked against him. But despite all this, our guy will make it to work safely. Whew! Fact is, he’s never been in an accident—never even had a near miss. That’s because he’s a very good driver, and that alone negates nearly all of his risk factors. A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study found that 78 percent of accidents aren’t “accidents” at all—they’re caused by driver distraction.

In other words, 78 percent of accidents are entirely preventable. By you. Today. Here’s where to start.

RISK #8: TALKING ON A CELLPHONE
Deaths per year: 1,000
A growing number of U.S. cities and towns—not to mention more than 50 countries around the world—now ban cellphone use while driving. Why? Of the 10.2 million car accidents in the United States last year, roughly 2.5 million of them involved drivers on cellphones.

And not just fender benders. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, drivers using handheld devices are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to cause injuries. When a driver between the ages of 30 and 39 dies in a car crash, there’s a 24 percent chance he or she was on the phone at the time of the accident.

A study published in the journal Human Factors found that drivers talking on cellphones were 18 percent slower to react to brake lights and took 17 percent longer to regain speed lost after braking. In fact, according to a University of Utah study, cellphone use—whether it’s hand-held or hands-free—delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

And, no, talking on the phone isn’t the same as chatting with a passenger. A Carnegie Mellon study found that passengers naturally pause their conversation when situations demand the driver’s full attention. Your iPhone is amazing, but it can’t do that.

LIVE TO TELL ABOUT IT: How to avoid these 7 common car accidents.

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