Last month, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center’s Trauma Division and NYPD officials collaborated on a well-received community outreach event – warning the public about the dangers of distracted driving.
The event was centered on Distracted Driving Awareness Month, an observance created by the National Safety Council to draw attention to the large number of accidents and fatalities that occur as a result of not paying attention to the road while driving.
Each year the hospital’s trauma division receives over 1,500 patients and a substantial number of their injuries or fatalities are caused by distracted driving. In fact, national statistics report that on average, one in four vehicle crashes involves the use of a cell phone while driving.
However, the act of driving while distracted does not only involve cell phone use, as told by Dr. Geoffrey Doughlin; Jamaica Hospital’s Chairperson of Emergency Services during media interviews. “There are three types of distracted driving: visual- taking your eyes off the road, manual-taking your hands off the wheel and cognitive- taking your mind off driving.” Doughlin further explained to reporters, “Distracted driving activities also include eating, applying makeup or talking to passengers.”
WATCH NY1 Media Interview here:
Jamaica Hospital’s Trauma Division actively conducts research on motor vehicle and pedestrian safety. The research is utilized in industry publications, as a resource for the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee and in other hospital community outreach efforts. The division was awarded funding by the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee in 2015 and 2016 for their Safer Street Queens project.
The objectives of New York City’s Vision Zero initiative coincide with those of our Trauma Division, which is essentially making streets safer for all who use them. Vision Zero, Street Team Officers are often seen in neighborhoods engaging residents while handing out safe driving and pedestrian safety reading materials. Officers did the same the day of the event by standing in front of the hospital and handing out Vision Zero materials to all who walked by.
The efforts of programs such as Vision Zero and Safer Streets Queens have yielded positive results. NYPD Chief of Transportation, Thomas Chan shared that the areas in South East Queens have seen a 45% decrease in fatalities and education as well as enforcement has played a large part in that achievement. Chief Chan informed Queens Ledger reporters, “We’re seeing a difference.” “Two years in a row we’ve had decreases since the inception of Vision Zero. There’s always room for improvement and we’re going to continue to work on these particular issues.”
Overall, the event was successful; we would like to thank the staff of Jamaica Hospital’s Trauma Division and the NYPD for their commitment to educating our community on road rules and safety.