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Distracted driving rampant on Arkansas roads

We take a look at the different types of distracted driving and show you the shocking number of people who are using their cell phones while driving, right here in central Arkansas. So how do we fix this problem?

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - School will be out for the summer soon, and more kids will hit the road.

We want to make sure both you and your kids stay safe behind the wheel.

In part one of a two-part series on distracted driving, we take a look at the different types of distracted driving and show you the shocking number of people who are using their cell phones while driving, right here in central Arkansas.

When you think of the words distracted driving, "everyone thinks cell phones," said Thompson Driving School instructor Robert Bennett. But "it goes beyond that," he added. "We're talking in-car technology, smart screens in the dash, lane departure warning devices."

So much to take the driver's mind off the road. And new government data shows all drivers are becoming more distracted. In 2006, numbers showed about a half of a percent of all drivers were seen using a handheld device. But in 2016, the number of adults doing it quadrupled to about two percent. For those 16 to 24, it skyrocketed to 11 times more than first reported.

That data is alarming. It's scary. But it was all collected when drivers were stopped at intersections. So we hit the road in Weatherforce 11, going to some of the busiest interstates in central Arkansas, to see what drivers are really doing behind the wheel and how distracted they really are.

It didn't take long. The first person we looked at jumping on I-630 was on their phone.

It's hard to tell if these drivers were texting and driving, which is illegal for all drivers, or if they were using their phone for something else, which in Arkansas is still legal for adults on most roads, including this stretch of I-30.

But laws aside, as a person, as a parent, this car ride was more than disappointing.

More than half of the Arkansas drivers we recorded were using a handheld device while on the interstate.

We're asking you to join our 'Refuse to Lose' campaign.

Take a picture of what you refuse to lose, post it on social media, use #refusetolose and #beon11.

And remind yourself every time you want to look at your phone while driving, what it is that you refuse to lose.

Too many of us are driving while distracted. The statistics show it, the video shows it. So how do we fix this problem?

Distracted driving makes us mad. "It's frustrating," admitted Thompson Driving School instructor Robert Bennett, "it makes me angry."

It worries us.

"It's a scary thing as a parent," added Little Rock Police Lieutenant Michael Ford, "I know people aren't paying attention."

Paying attention instead to their cellphone.

Driver after driver, more than half of the people we recorded on highways in Little Rock had their cell phones in their hands.

So how can we stop this tethering to technology?

"Turn the cell phone off," advised Bennett, "put it in the glove box." There are several apps that can block texts and calls while you're driving, but "you have to desire to use that application."

And those apps have loopholes.

"It pops up and says this person is currently driving," explained Lt. Ford, but "you can slide that away and say I'm not driving." Perhaps the answer to this new problem is an old solution. "The biggest thing you can do, have the conversation, just like any other conversation you'll have. Let them know that you want them to arrive home alive."

Eventually, distracted driving may not be a worry with self-driving cars. Tesla and Cadillac, among the big-name automakers leading the way. Their vehicles are basically driving themselves on highways right now.

"That is our hope," said Bennett. "That is our dream, I look forward to that day that I no longer have to have a job for teaching driving."

But for most of us, experts agree it'll be more than a decade before we can focus on the phone and not the road.

Until then, teach your kids and remind yourself to put down the distractions and drive defensively.

"We're scanning down the roadway," said Bennett, "we're watching every vehicle assuming that other person is not paying attention to us."

Bennett says when you do see a driver who is distracted, don't pass them, slow down and put the threat ahead of you. He says if you can see it, you can better react to it.

And we're asking you to join our 'refuse to lose' campaign.

Take a picture of what you refuse to lose, post it on social media, use #refusetolose, and #beon11.

And remind yourself every time you want to look at your phone while driving, what it is that you refuse to lose.

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