What do drivers find most distracting?

A national survey of over 1000 Australian adults by insurer Allianz has revealed that children are far and away the worst type of distraction a driver can face on any road trip. Nearly a third (31 per cent) of the drivers responding to the survey admitted that children in the car were incredibly distracting.

Perhaps you thought that parents no longer turned around and remonstrated with their kids when one was "looking at" the other or encroaching on the other's upholstered turf. Maybe the parents of today know better than to turn around and threaten to "stop the car" – with all the corporate punishment that implies. These are the five things every parent says to their kids in the car.

Apparently, the number one 'torture-by-progeny' tactic employed to distract a parent behind the wheel is the good old 'Are we there yet?' demand. According to the results of the survey, 18 per cent have experienced kids asking for a sat-nav update twice an hour. And as many as 22 per cent of parents have been asked the question within the first half hour of the trip commencing.

While kids are the supreme distraction in the car, flying objects frequently grab the attention of drivers, the survey reveals. Around 20 per cent of drivers have involuntarily taken their eyes off the road to look at bugs, as one example. Presumably 'flying objects' can include birds, planes, UFOs, meteorites and Skylab – although the last two are 'dropping objects' rather than objects of the 'flying' kind.

Number three on the list was 'passengers'. Around 13 per cent of the survey's respondents cited passengers in the car as a distraction. If you've ever had one of your silly or inebriated mates lean across and switch on the hazard warning lights and crank the heater up to volcanic levels, you'll sympathise with those drivers. These are the five things that passengers are expected to do.

Passengers can keep the driver occupied even when they're not being deliberately provocative. Many people are just bad passengers. Read about the five things you should never touch in someone else's car. They'll flinch at the approach of a vehicle from the left, even if there's no reason to think for a moment that the two cars will collide.

And then there are the passengers who offer the driver sexual favours while the vehicle is in motion. Best not to discuss that any further...

Surprisingly, the mobile phone holds the lowly fourth place for distractions. Just 12 per cent of drivers admitted in the survey that the mobile phone preyed on their minds when they should be focused on driving.

With the modern smartphone, drivers can now update social media, check emails, text family, friends or colleagues, photograph or video other drivers engaged in acts of random stupidity and even make phone calls. If we could also drive a smartphone, the road toll would likely be much lower. We obviously pay more attention to the phone than the operation of a motor vehicle on a public thoroughfare.

Finally, at six per cent of the survey results, pets are a relatively common distraction for drivers. Dogs are kind of fun. They usually love riding around in cars, with their heads out the window, sniffing everything in 'smellovision'. But, they certainly could be a distraction.

Perhaps not as much as cats, however. Cats don't seem to enjoy riding around in cars. They meow in constant distress and really shouldn't be allowed the run of the car at all. In fact, they should be sedated if there's really no alternative to transporting the family cat somewhere by car. Now there's a new invention the world needs: Mogadon for moggies.

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