| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 11
| Issue : 3 | Page : 79-85 |
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Driving literacy and distracted driving southern Saudi Arabia experience
Ali Al-Bshabshe1, Tarique Hussain Ashraf2, Mohammed Dwaima3, Muhamed Abid4, Mueed Al-Harthi5
1 Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
2 Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
3 Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
4 Department of Medicine, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
5 Department of General Medicine, Khamis General Hospital, Khamis Mushit, Saudi Arabia
Correspondence Address:
Tarique Hussain Ashraf
Department of Surgery, King Khalid University, P. O. Box 25216, 1416, Abha
Saudi Arabia
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DOI: 10.4103/1858-5000.189560 
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Background: Driving is a psychomotor activity that requires a combination of concentration and good visual and auditory functions. It is very important for drivers to be attentive while driving to avoid car accidents. Distracted driving is an act of driving while engaged into other activities such as looking after children, texting, talking on the phone or to a passenger, watching videos, eating, or reading that takes the attention of driver away from the road. Objective: To evaluate the driving literacy among students and teachers regarding distracted driving namely the use of mobile phones (texting and talking) while driving and compare them. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study that contains open-ended, close-ended, and likert scale items. The study took place in Abha City of Aseer Province, KSA from October 1, 2014, to December 31, 2014. Results: 72% of all respondents were answering the calls while driving. On comparing teachers and students, 77% of students were making calls while driving as compared to 44% of teachers. 56% of the respondents were doing complex tasks like reading a text message while driving. Nearly half of the respondents (48%) did not consider the usage of mobile while driving as dangerous action. Conclusion: Proper education regarding distracted driving is the need of hour and it should be started from primary schools. Social media, newspaper, television can be used to increase the awareness. There should be strict laws to ban the use of mobiles and other distracted driving activities while driving. |
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