About 20 years ago I almost killed my whole family. We were driving the four-lane back home from a vacation in fairly heavy traffic on a Saturday morning. Behind our station wagon I was towing a small boat, filled with suitcases and other gear we couldn’t fit into the car.

It all happened in an instant. I diverted my eyes from the road to check the traffic in the rear-view and see how the boat was tracking. It couldn’t have been more than two or three seconds. When I looked ahead again, the brake lights of the car in front were glowing red and I was closing in fast.

Thinking my stopping distance would be long with the boat in back, I jerked the wheel left instead of braking and swerved into the left lane. That would have been a safe move – if not for the boat, which didn’t want to stop swerving. When it pulled us toward the shoulder, I swung the wheel right. In no time we were fishtailing between the left lane and the ditch while I fought for control.

I regained it. At the next exit I pulled off, took a good look at my wife and young son and daughter, and got out to make sure the boat was still secure on the trailer. I’m not sure how close my family thought we had come to oblivion; I only know I had to take a break and let the nerves settle before getting back on the road. Never before or since has it been more clear what a little inattention at the wheel can do.

Too much nagging?

It seems these days we get lots of messages about inattentive or distracted driving – largely but not solely related to cellphones and texting. No less than the U.S. Department of Transportation has a website (www.distraction.gov) that aims to combat distracted driving in all its forms. The DOT lists three kinds of distracted driving:

Manual: Taking your hands off the wheel.

Visual: Taking your eyes off the road.

Cognitive: Taking your mind off driving.

Why all this attention? Because distracted driving kills. The DOT says that in 2009 alone, 5,494 people were killed and 448,000 more were injured in distracted driving crashes. Cellphone use was reported in 18 percent of distraction-related fatalities.

Think about how easy it can be, driving from one work site to another, to be distracted with thoughts of business issues, or to make that cellphone call to a customer or regulator, or to glance down at the phone to read an incoming text. And how much more dangerous is that if you’re pulling a trailer with heavy equipment aboard?

Am I immune? No. I’ve made phone calls while under way. A few times while going down a wide-open freeway I have opened a Web page on my smartphone, to check a sport score or a stock average. I have never texted – but still. After my experience, you would think I’d know better than to let my attention drift.

All it takes...

Experience teaches that a lot can happen in that instant when we’re not looking where we should be. For example, the DOT says sending a short text message while driving takes your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds on average. At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of a football field blindfolded.

We might tell ourselves that driving the open freeway is different from being on an urban two-lane highway. And it is – but still. Any number of things could cause a crash on what seems like a clear road. A deep pothole. A deer darting out of the woods. Just plain drifting over toward the shoulder. A patch of ice.

The statistics on distracted driving are sobering. For example, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) says texting is the most dangerous cellphone-related task done behind the wheel: A truck driver texting is 23.2 times more likely to have a crash than a trucker fully focused on driving. Other studies show:

Drivers using handheld devices are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to cause injury. Using a headset phone is not much safer.

Using any cellphone while driving delays reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.

Driving while using a cellphone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.

It’s not that hard

As work and travel season resumes with the end of winter, it’s worth remembering the dangers of distracted driving. These days, people in service businesses face huge temptation to “stay connected” and “be productive.” Are you or your team members routinely taking or making phone calls while driving? Or, heaven forbid, dealing with text messages while in a work vehicle?

What I tell myself repeatedly is this: If it’s important enough to make that call or read that text or check that website, it’s important enough to find a safe place and pull over. Does that sound like a good policy to live by? I’m willing to try it if you are.