Washington, D.C. - The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) released the following statement regarding the designation of April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA). The following quote may be attributed to Jeff Brewer, department vice president of public affairs: "Insurers care about safety, first and foremost. Unfortunately, as long as people continue to drive distracted, motorists, pedestrians and passengers are put at risk of injury or death on U.S. roadways. With so much at stake, promoting safety information to motorists and those on the roads during Distracted Driving Awareness Month is essential to saving the lives of those in our families and in our communities. "Distracted Driving Awareness Month is a time to further educate motorists and provide the knowledge necessary to understand the devastation associated with distracted driving. Education is the key to safer driving behaviors and that means keeping all motorists and communities informed as to the realities of dangerous driving behaviors. "Distracted driving is a completely preventable behavior that caused 3,142 deaths and thousands of life-altering injuries in the United States in 2020. A call, text, or stream is never worth losing your life or killing someone else on the roads, yet distracted driving fatalities often occur as a result of the use of handheld devices behind the wheel. Despite laws enacted in many U.S. states designed to reduce the use of devices for messaging or texting behind the wheel, cellphone use remains a significantly dangerous problem.
