MOTORING NEWS - On a list of things that distract drivers, texting rates among the highest and one of the leading causes of single car accidents in South Africa.

According to the International Transport Forum's (ITF) annual road safety report, 25% of South Africa's road accidents stem from texting while driving. Reading a text and responding while you drive can distract you for about nine seconds.

Other distractions that this report attributes to car accidents are grooming, drinking and eating.

Facts about texting and driving

l When you text and drive, your chances of getting into an accident are increased by more than 23 times.

l If you are driving drunk, you need an extra distance of 1,2 meters to stop your car, but when you are texting and driving you need an enormous 21,3 meters extra.

l Before an accident happens, a driver spends five seconds looking down at their phone. The distance travelled on a freeway while looking at the phone for those five seconds can be approximately the length of a football field.

l Because of their erratic behaviour behind the wheel while texting, often swerving in and out of lanes or running into other cars while driving, teenagers typically have a higher texting crash rate.

l On average, driving-and-texting accidents happen within two to three seconds while a driver is texting.

What you can do to prevent texting while driving

l The easiest thing we can do is to turn off or mute our phones. This decreases the chances of an accident by 50%. It also helps to resist the urge to text or talk on our phones.

l Try to encourage others to not use their phones when driving. Don't become a statistic, or worse, cause a horrific accident where someone could get seriously injured or possibly die.

l Calls or texts you receive while driving that are not a matter of life and death, can wait until you have arrived at your destination. Don't let them become a matter of your life or death.

'We bring you the latest Garden Route, Karoo, Hessequa news'