Zombies Overrun California’s Distracted Driving Campaign
| April 2nd, 2012
April 2, 2012 Zombies are on the loose on Northern California’s roads, and you might be one. The “zombies” are actually distracted drivers, and according to ABC 7 News, they’re being compared to zombies as part of California’s campaign for the 2nd Annual Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which started yesterday. The ad campaign kicked off with commercials depicting those who use their phones behind the wheel as the lifeless and thoughtless creatures and will coincide with other educational programs on the topic throughout the month. A study by Carnegie Mellon University that found a cellphone can reduce 35 percent of a person’s brain activity while driving was the inspiration for the public service announcements. A spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, Chris Murphy, says that “the message is one-third of your brain is not there because you’re doing that on your phone while you’re driving, you really become a zombie. There’s inattention blindness that you don’t even know what you’re not seeing.” In an effort to reduce the number of accidents in the state caused by these drivers, law enforcement will be on the lookout for any driver who’s not using a hands free device. Nearly 52,000 drivers were ticketed last year statewide in a similar month-long campaign. The California Car Accident Lawyers with Berg Injury Lawyers ask that motorists help keep California’s highways safe by putting their cellphones down while behind the wheel of their vehicles.
