Ask British Columbians about the biggest threat to their safety on the road, and most will say distracted drivers, without skipping a beat. Yet in BCAA’s 2021 Distracted Driving Survey, nine out of 10 respondents said they “multitask” in their cars – or ride with drivers who do. That means everything from talking on cellphones to eating, drinking, fiddling with climate controls, switching music and interacting with passengers. One in 20 respondents said they’ve been in a collision as a result, and one in five have had a close call. “We’ve been conditioned to think of multitasking as this positive, praiseworthy ability,” says Shawn Pettipas, Director of Community Engagement at BCAA. “But there are no gold stars for ‘doing it all’ behind the wheel. The reality is, our brains can only handle so much, and multitasking is just another word for distraction.”

Responses like these keep Cpl. Mike Halskov awake at night. The veteran police officer, now a spokesperson for the RCMP’s BC Highway Patrol based in Surrey, has watched distraction surpass impaired driving as a leading cause of traffic fatalities in BC over the past decade. Today, around one in four fatal crashes is caused by distraction.

After years of campaigns and giving out tickets, Halskov thinks the message is starting to break through. But there are still far too many losses.

“It’s tough to change human behaviour,” he says. “Across the province, we dedicate a lot of resources to this issue, because we understand that if left unchecked, it’s going to result in more people dying on our roads.”

Behind the wheel, a distraction is anything that splits a driver’s focus. According to experts, sources of inattention can be visual, taking your eyes off the road; manual, taking your hands off the wheel; auditory, interfering with sound cues; or cognitive, causing your mind to wander. Framed this way, it’s easy to see why normally harmless activities – listening to music, fiddling with dials, scarfing burgers, refereeing squabbles – turn risky in the driver’s seat.

Then there are smartphones, which wrap multiple distractions and temptations into one potent package. “Our cellphones aren’t just phones anymore,” says Halskov. “They’re instruments we use to text, surf the Internet, listen to music and podcasts. It’s very difficult for people to just put them down and focus on what they need to focus on.” Meanwhile, modern vehicles are becoming technology-saturated, too, with all kinds of shiny diversions built right into the dashboards. Between touchscreens, digital displays, buttons, Bluetooth, GPS aids and infotainment systems, there’s more competition for drivers’ attention than ever before.

Your brain on distraction

When someone has been driving for years, the act feels like second nature. But to the brain, it’s still a symphony of motor-visual functions: pressing gas and brake pedals, turning the wheel, watching the road, reacting to other vehicles, gauging speed and distance. When we pile on extra workload, or distractions, the brain diverts mental resources from the task at hand.

It’s a cognitive trade-off, says neuroscientist and UBC psychology professor Dr. Todd Handy. “The brain can only engage with so much at once,” he says. “If we’re paying attention to one thing, we’re ignoring another.” And if we’re steering a big metal box down a road at high speeds, the results can be deadly.

Our minds have a natural ability to relax and wander when performing a familiar task like driving, adds Handy. Normally, they can snap to attention quickly when something unusual happens, like another car swerving. But if you’re already concentrating on something else – a podcast, a TikTok video, your reflection – you probably won’t be able to refocus quickly enough.

Studies performed in a lab setting confirm that distracted drivers miss visual cues and have slower-than-normal reaction times, much like substance-impaired drivers. “We’ve all seen distracted drivers out there, and [the vehicles] really exhibit the same sort of symptomology as an impaired driver,” says Halskov. “They might be weaving within their lane, straddling the centre line or the dividing lines. They could be speeding up, then slowing down. Or, they come to a lurching stop.” Distracted drivers are also prone to “inattentional blindness,” meaning they may look at, but not really see, what’s in front of them. This is why mental distractions are so dangerous.

It’s also why “hands-free” doesn’t translate to risk-free. Voice-only phone calls are permitted under BC’s driving laws, but there is a huge amount of evidence they’re distracting; much more so than conversations inside the vehicle. This is partly because drivers and passengers share an awareness of what’s happening on the road, naturally modulating their conversation to the situation. But a remote caller has no clue, and may keep chatting away, even if the driver gets into trouble.