Eating while driving is the worst form of distracted driving for a driver! Yet a study of 1,000 drivers done by ExxonMobil found that over 70% of drivers admit to eating while behind the wheel and 83% drink beverages while they drive.

A study done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concluded that those who eat and drive increase the odds of an accident by 80%! They also concluded that 65% of near miss accidents are caused by distracted drivers fussing with food and drinks. Those are some pretty staggering and eye opening statistics! As a matter of fact, those stats are worse than texting while driving numbers!

The NHTSA even went as far as to list the most dangerous foods and beverages. Starbucks would be very sad to hear that coffee takes first place. Drinking coffee is the single most dangerous food item to have in the vehicle when it comes to distracted driving. Think about it, what happens if you spill that coffee on your lap? Even when your morning coffee is sitting in a cup holder, you aren't safe! What happens when you hit a pothole and coffee starts splashing out through the vents and holes on the lid. Doesn't it attract your attention? Yup, your beloved coffee is putting you at risk! So please, don't drink (coffee) and drive.

The Top 10 Most Dangerous Foods & Beverages While Driving

10. Chocolate

Anything you touch, such as the steering wheel, armrest, your clothes, etc., will leave nasty chocolate fingerprints. A drivers instinctive reaction is to clean the stains, which of course, leads to a major distraction!

9. Soft Drinks

Spilling a drink, having a can or bottle fall out of the cup holder, and even the act of taking a sip all lead to increased driver distractions. Searching the floorboard of your car to find that water bottle rolling around takes your eyes off the road in a worse way than texting and driving!

8. Jelly And Cream Filled Or Powdered Donuts

So you swing into Dunkin' Donuts and get your nice hot coffee and tasty jelly donut. You take a bite, and the jelly oozes out the end and drips all over your nice new work pants. You guessed it, a major driver distraction!

7. Fried chicken

Fried chicken is delicious, but better enjoyed at home, not eating while driving. A driver eating fried chicken will constantly be cleaning off his or her hands from all the grease. Have you ever gotten grease on a steering wheel or an armrest? It isn't easy to clean off once it has been there for a while!

6. Any Barbecued Food

Who doesn't like BBQ sauce! But remember, if it can drip, it will certainly find a way to do that while you're driving. Getting barbecue sauce all over your clothes and nice leather car seat will surely lead to distracted driving!

5. Juicy Hamburgers

Again, if it can drip, it'll find a way to do so in your car. Don't let that $3 burger from McDonald's turn into a $1,000 deductible from your insurance. That would be an expensive burger!

4. Chili

Anything containing chili like a chili dog, sloppy Joe or Coney dog. Chili is fantastic on a lot of things. But chili on your steering wheel or your sweater isn't so great, and will take your focus off the road.

3. Tacos

When you hit that pothole and your taco turns into a fiesta bowl on your lap, it's sure to cause some erratic vehicle movements!

2. Hot Soups

Who doesn't love a nice steaming hot bowl of classic Chicken Noodle Soup. Pretty much everyone except the driver who just spilled it all over the floorboard of their car....and the person they rear end as a result.

1. Coffee

We've already covered this one. And unfortunately, this is one of the most popular items to consume while heading into work. Not a safe thing to have in the cup holder, or in your lap!

Additional Facts About Eating While Driving

The majority of food related accidents occur in the morning hours. People are more concerned about their appearance in the morning as they are heading to work, so a spill is a much bigger deal. Eating while driving also occurs more frequently when people are running late.
A manual transmission vehicles double the chances of distracted driving crashes caused by food consumption.

Written By: Mike Rogers

From Eating While Driving to Distracted Driving

From Eating While Driving to The Drive Safely Homepage