DWD – Driving While Distracted

Nationwide Insurance teamed up with NASCAR drivers Kenny Wallace and Brad Coleman to raise awareness among Texas teens about DWD – Driving While Distracted.

“When our three daughters started driving my wife and I took it very seriously. Each went through driver’s education programs, but we also taught them safe driving on our own,” said Wallace, driver of the No. 28 U.S. Border Patrol Chevy in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. “The most important thing to me is that they are safe drivers who are very aware of their surroundings when they are in the car.”

To drive home the message that multitasking behind the wheel puts drivers and their fellow motorists as risk, Nationwide hosted an event a Southlake Carroll Senior High School. Students and community members were able to see firsthand the impact text messaging has on their driving abilities while racing in a NASCAR simulator.

“In a race, if I don’t focus, I don’t finish and it costs me points,” said Coleman, driver of the No. 27 Kleenex Ford in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. “If I am distracted out on the road outside the racetrack, it could cost me and those around me a lot more.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says distracted drivers account for nearly four out of five crashes in the U.S. The problem is especially bad for young drivers. In a survey by Nationwide Mutual Insurance of 1,200 drivers, a third of Gen Y-ers admit to always multitasking while driving and 37 percent send text messages while driving.

“At Nationwide, we’re as much in the business of preventing accidents as we are in reimbursing people after an accident,” said Brian McCulloch, Nationwide’s Associate Vice President of Sales for Texas. “Text messaging comes natural to Gen Y-ers. However, multitasking while behind the wheel is quite different from multitasking while sitting at home.”

Distractions that take a driver’s eyes off the road even for just seconds put drivers and their passengers at great risk.