Hang Up and Drive (Editorial)

Distracted drivers are a menace, and they're not getting the message. But we don't need a broader law; we need more enforcement of laws already on the books.
Chicago Tribune
Editorials
12/23/2011

The National Transportation Safety Board wants all 50 states to ban cellphone use by drivers. No texting, no tweeting, no talking — not even on a hands-free phone.

It's a standard that goes beyond anything on the books in any state. The board has no authority to impose it. The data on accidents involving cellphones is inconclusive, the government is not our nanny, and eating a chili dog while driving is dangerous, too.

A nationwide ban will not happen.

That doesn't mean the NTSB isn't onto something. If you're not frightened by what's going on around you during your daily commute, you're not paying attention. Drivers are texting while flying down the expressways, sending emails in stop-and-go traffic on Lake Shore Drive, carrying on animated conversations while changing lanes with one hand on the phone and the other holding a Starbucks.

All of that is already illegal in Chicago and beyond. Have you noticed fewer people doing it? Neither have we.

A second agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, says distracted driving was a factor in more than 3,000 fatal accidents in 2010. It doesn't say how many involved texting, how many involved talking on the phone or how many involved reaching behind the seat to retrieve the toddler's fallen pacifier.

But one of those accidents provided the NTSB with a horrific anecdote to support last week's call for a comprehensive ban. A 19-year-old driver sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes before his pickup truck plowed into a tractor trailer near Gray Summit, Mo. The chain-reaction collision also involved two school buses. The teen driver and a student on one of the buses died, and 38 others were injured.

But a nationwide ban wouldn't have prevented that tragedy. Missouri already prohibits drivers under 21 from texting while driving. Thirty-five states prohibit texting by all drivers; 30 ban cellphone use by novice drivers; and 10 have outlawed the use of even hands-free phones. Hundreds of local governments have their own laws covering behind-the-wheel cellphone use. And we would argue that all of those prohibitions (and a lot more) are covered under broader distracted driving laws in force in most states, including Illinois. (Think about that, you in the gray car, with the eye makeup implements in both hands, gazing at yourself in the rearview mirror, while drifting lane to lane on Columbus Drive, in Grant Park.)

Still, a traffic safety commission survey found that 1 in 10 drivers — and half of those ages 21 to 24 — said they'd texted or emailed while behind the wheel. At any given moment, 1 in 100 drivers is texting, tweeting, emailing or web-surfing, a rate that's up 50 percent over the previous year. Most of them said they don't think it's dangerous.

While states have been busy passing laws to limit distractions, Americans have been acquiring all sorts of new gadgets that promote multitasking in the car. GPS systems; MP3 players; smartphones that enable users to play games, pay bills, order dinner or watch a movie while barreling down the Eisenhower. But the distractions aren't all high-tech. The worst local example we can think of involved a driver who struck and killed a motorcyclist while painting her nails.

Distracted drivers are a menace, and they're not getting the message. But we don't need a broader law; we need more enforcement of laws already on the books.

What if police pounced on behind-the-wheel texting with the same zeal applied to parking meter violations? What if those hated red-light cameras could bust you for talking on your handheld phone? If the risk of killing yourself or others isn't deterrent enough, maybe a ticket or three will get your attention.

It's time we all started taking these dangers seriously. Keep your hands (thumbs and all) on the wheel.

The Last Text: AT&T Don't Text While Driving...A Moving Documentary

Watch AT&T's new 10-minute documentary titled "The Last Text," featuring stories of real individuals whose lives have been adversely affected by texting behind the wheel.

AT&T created this documentary as part of its "It Can Wait" campaign because we want consumers be safe while using our technology. We are grateful and humbled by the bravery of the people who agreed to be on camera for the documentary. We would have no story to tell without them. Don't text while driving documentary

Hand-Held Cell Phone Usage Banned for Interstate Truckers and Buses

FMCSA 35-11
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Contact: Candice Tolliver Burns
Tel: 202-366-9999

WASHINGTON - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a final rule specifically prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using hand-held cell phones while operating their vehicles. The joint rule from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is the latest action by the U.S. Department of Transportation to end distracted driving.

"When drivers of large trucks, buses and hazardous materials take their eyes off the road for even a few seconds, the outcome can be deadly," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "I hope that this rule will save lives by helping commercial drivers stay laser-focused on safety at all times while behind the wheel."

The final rule prohibits commercial drivers from using a hand-held mobile telephone while operating a commercial truck or bus. Drivers who violate the restriction will face federal civil penalties of up to $2,750 for each offense and disqualification from operating a commercial motor vehicle for multiple offenses. Additionally, states will suspend a driver's commercial driver's license (CDL) after two or more serious traffic violations. Commercial truck and bus companies that allow their drivers to use hand-held cell phones while driving will face a maximum penalty of $11,000. Approximately four million commercial drivers would be affected by this final rule.

"This final rule represents a giant leap for safety," said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro. "It's just too dangerous for drivers to use a hand-held cell phone while operating a commercial vehicle. Drivers must keep their eyes on the road, hands on the wheel and head in the game when operating on our roads. Lives are at stake." While driver distraction studies have produced mixed results, FMCSA research shows that using a hand-held cell phone while driving requires a commercial driver to take several risky steps beyond what is required for using a hands-free mobile phone, including searching and reaching for the phone. Commercial drivers reaching for an object, such as a cell phone, are three times more likely to be involved in a crash or other safety-critical event. Dialing a hand-held cell phone makes it six times more likely that commercial drivers will be involved in a crash or other safety-critical event. Complete Press Release

Distracted Drivers Caused 16% of All Traffic Deaths...Get Off the Damn Phone

People I Do Not Want to Experience

While They Are On a Cell Phone

Annoying and So Self Centered

I Will Floss 5 Times a Day and take my chances

Tonsillectomy...not a Vasectomy

Til Death Do Us Part...NOT!

The Washington Post
By Ashley Halsey III
October 4, 2011

You know them when you see them behind the wheel of that car on the highway that can’t seem to stay between the white lines.

You used to think: Can that driver really be drunk at 10 a.m.?

Now you think something else, and you’re probably right.

Thirty-five percent of drivers said they’ve read or sent a text message while driving in the last month, according to a new survey. Sixty-seven percent said they talked on a cellphone while driving in the past month, and almost a third said they do it regularly.

But virtually everyone agrees that dealing with text messaging and cellphones while driving is a serious threat to their safety, according to the same survey, conducted on behalf of the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety.

It isn’t the first survey to shed light on the contradiction between what Americans do and what they think is right, but the percentages are particularly striking. Ninety-five percent of drivers consider text messaging as a serious threat, while 88 percent feel the same way about cellphone use.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says that 5,474 people were killed and an estimated 448,000 were injured in 2009 in accidents that involved distracted driving. NHTSA said that accounted for about 16 percent of all traffic deaths. Continue Reading

95 percent of drivers believe texting while driving is dangerous, yet 35% still text

How dare those who text and drive place my

family and friends in harm's way.

Washington, DC

For the fourth consecutive year, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety's annual Traffic Safety Culture Index shows drivers know that cell phone use and texting while driving are dangerous, yet they continue to do it anyway.

Specifically, data from the 2011 survey found that 95 percent of drivers view texting or emailing by other drivers as a serious threat to their own personal safety, however, 35 percent of those same drivers also admitted to having read or sent a text message or email in the previous month.

According to the survey, 88% percent of drivers feel talking on a phone is a threat to safety, yet two-thirds admitted to having talked on a cell phone while driving in the past 30 days.

More Do as I say, Not as I Do

52 Percent of Drivers Feel Less Safe than One Year Ago...Driver Distractions

The leading reason cited by American

drivers was distracted driving, with

88 percent of motorists rating drivers

who text and email as a very serious

threat to their safety.



Edmunds Auto Observer

By Auto Observer Staff
September 19, 2011

More than half of drivers said driving feels less safe now than it did five years ago, according to a survey for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety: 2010 Traffic Safety Culture Index. The 52 percent of drivers who said driving feels less safe was an increase of 17 percent over the number of drivers who said so just a year earlier. The reason: concerns about increasing driver distractions, according to Jim Foley, a researcher at Toyota Motor Corp.’s Technical Center in Ann Arbor, MI.

Foley said analysis of driver distraction is a chief priority for Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center, which just announced it will spend $50 million for new safety research projects. One aspect of the research will expand study of the so-called “human-machine interface,” or HMI, and how designs for interacting with onboard systems can affect distraction. Early conclusions from CRSC studies, Foley said, indicate that talking and listening to engage various functions is markedly less distracting than controls that require visual attention. One related study indicated that 78 percent of crashes were related to inattention from the driver.

The study showed that the majority of drivers (62 percent) feel that talking on a cell phone is a very serious threat to safety, but they do not always behave accordingly or believe that others share these views. In fact, nearly 70 percent of those surveyed admitted to talking on their phones and 24 percent said they read or sent text messages or emails while driving in the previous month.

When You Confuse the Two...