According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), 3,328 people died on the road due to an act of distracted driving. While we most closely associate texting and talking on the phone as the way drivers are distracted, the DOT has a new target in the war on distracted driving: navigation apps.
While there may be slight differences in how distracted we are from one action to the next, if we’re doing anything other than keeping our eyes on the road in front of us, it’s a danger.
There’s good reason for the DOT to be targeting navigation apps, because even though you are clearly distracted if you are driving when holding a cell phone and looking at a map rather than the road, there’s a loophole in the law.
For example, a California man was recently given a $165 ticket for distracted driving while using a navigation app. He fought it, because in his words "I was not using my phone, I was not texting." He fought the ticket... and won.
"The reality is that the law didn't cover that so they cited me for the wrong thing," the man said. "Had I been driving dangerously they could have cited me for that. Had I been swerving across lanes, they could have cited me for that. I wasn't doing anything but holding a handheld electronic device."
