April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

(Story by Bailey Cultice)

More than 35,000 people died in traffic accidents on U.S. roadways in 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and distracted driving played a role in 10 percent of those deaths.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, so now is a perfect time to re-evaluate our behavior behind the wheel. Take a moment to consider which of the following tasks could be considered distracted driving:

• Reaching for your cell phone
• Grabbing your coffee mug from the center console
• Picking up the pencil that just fell on the floorboard
• Adjusting controls in your vehicle (such as mirrors, seats, air conditioning, radio)

If you answered “all of the above,” you are correct! According to the NHTSA, distracted driving is any non-driving activity a person engages in while operating a motor vehicle. Such activities have the potential to distract the person from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing.

Last year, driving safety became a central concern at AEP after two employees were involved in fatal motor vehicle accidents. Prior to these incidents, AEP had gone four years without losing an employee on the job and is working to return to that standard.

The week of April 10, employees from across the company will gather to develop ideas and streamline recommendations to improve driving safety throughout AEP. A special kickoff event will be held at the 1 Riverside Plaza Conferencing Center on Monday, April 10.  It will feature a keynote speech from Dom Tiberi, a sportscaster in Columbus, Ohio. Tiberi launched a campaign to end distracted driving after his daughter was killed in 2013 in a distracted driving accident.