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I read with interest a recent survey by Allianz Your Cover Insurance revealing nearly one in five drivers admitted to having a car accident due to talking to their fellow passengers.
As I read it, I thought to myself what a great excuse to tell some of the people I drive around with to shut up and let me listen to my music (to my colleagues, I'm joking of course!), until I read on to discover that that's a dangerous sport too.
Because when it comes to having your stereo on the survey says that men are more likely to be entranced by their music and nearly a quarter (22%) of men have had or nearly had an accident due to listening to music, whereas this has only happened to 12% of women.
I'm an avid reader of any statistics regarding the causes of accidents, and Allianz Your Cover Insurance's survey will, I'm sure, open up an interesting debate regarding the dangers of music and other people as in-vehicle distractions.
There's no doubt that when drivers are under most pressure, for example when lost and searching for an address, they often switch their radio off and ask the person next to them to pause the conversation for a second so that they can concentrate. Both are, therefore, viable issues.
Yet I have a niggling fear that surveys such as these - and I'm not disputing the statistics nor the good intention behind reporting them - begin to portray the risk sector as being at odds with real life and if we play on them too much they can damage our credibility.
Let me explain. At E-Training World, our role as a business is to develop online courses to reduce accidents in the fleet sector.
It can be a tough old job persuading some fleet managers of the virtues of training drivers to manoeuvre carefully, reverse into car parking spaces, to consider their road position etc because some still see the driver training contingency as a bunch of anoraks who wear gloves and always use their handbrake at a stop sign.
To overcome this we adopt a businesslike and non-judgemental approach to help companies cut the costs of accidents, meet their legal obligations and in doing so improve driver safety.
In other words, we accept that their objectives are often financial and operational and as long as their repair costs come down they aren't too worried if drivers drift over the speed limit from time to time.
Rather than bang our fists on the table and remind fleet managers that their drivers are breaking the law by going over the speed limit, we accept that it's inevitable and simply look for methods of ensuring that they drive safely, and accident free.
So, back to the survey and I ask myself this question: Do I see myself sitting in front of a fleet manager telling him or her that one of their biggest problem areas that needs to be addressed through an online course is drivers talking to passengers?
No, because I fear I'd be laughed out of the room. But do I believe that passengers are a distraction? Yes I do in certain instances.
They can also help save lives, and I'm sure many a driver has had a moment where the passenger alerts them to a danger before they've spotted it themselves.
Can I imagine telling a fleet manager to make it part of the company policy to ban drivers from listening to music? Of course not.
Do I agree that music can distract someone's driving? Yes, if it's on so loud that other vehicles cannot be heard or if the driver is singing at the top of their voice.
My point is, let's just be careful about how we promote the issue of risk in the press. If we are to engage with companies, win their trust and persuade them of the value that driver training can bring to their business we must shake off some of the preconceptions about the risk industry.
The health and safety sector has been ridiculed at times for ludicrous decisions, such as banning village conker matches. Let's not fall into that trap of no longer being taken seriously!
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