don't drive with cell/pda

[mellowtigger]

I've found some interesting news today about the safety of driving while using a cell/pda.  No surprise.  It's really UNsafe.  Stop doing it.  :(

First, a report by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute "found that texting while driving increased the risk of a crash or a near crash by more than 23 times. " More specifically, here are some of the highlights of the dangers (of a crash or near-crash) while driving a car or other light vehicle:

• 1.4 times higher risk when reaching for an object
• 1.3 times higher risk when talking or listening
• 2.8 times higher risk when dialing
• 23 times higher risk when texting

They found that "hands-free headsets favored by a growing number of jurisdictions only partly resolve the problem".  The main issue is that the driver's eyes and attention are not directly on the road ahead of the vehicle, so the conversation itself is a distraction from proper focus.

Second, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had its own evidence of significant risk back in 2002, but it withheld the information until recently revealed by Freedom Of Information Act requests.   NHTSA had prepared a report intending to educate state governors about the extreme risk of these activities and to encourage states not to sign legislation that permitted it.  Their superiors, however, feared angering members of Congress by sidestepping federal authority, and so the report was squashed.

This is the kind of politics-before-science-or-safety that really intensely annoys me.  What if we just do away with politicians and make the function a public service like jury duty?

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Daniel's been ranting about this since at least 2002 ... he was in attendance when that info was presented at nitsa.

[mojomike.livejournal.com]

I remember being shocked the first time anyone suggested younger peopler where actually texting, TYPING on a TINY KEYBOARD with their THUMBS, while DRIVING a vehicle typically some SUV monstrosity. It BOGGLES the imagination.. If these idiots were only a danger to themselves they could be (ahem) left to their own devices as a sort of Spencerian natural selection process but they are a public hazard and a menace capable of taking out bystanders with these moving Weapons of Mass Destruction (not that I am implying that the Laws of Thermodynamics could be violated and mass actually destroyed however..). I think the best solution would be to ban personal cars and only issue commercial drivers licenses so goods get to market.

[kauko.livejournal.com]

What i wonder about with people talking on cell phones while driving is: what is it with women and cell phones in car? I mean, literally, 9 times out of 10 if I see someone talking on a cell phone while driving they're female.

But, anyway, regardless of the gender of the driver, talking on the phone while driving is pretty stupid... but then again no one every accused people of engaging in smart habits in general while driving.

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

This is an amazing study - most studies are not so forthcoming with their data, only with their pronouncements.

Since this one provides the data, it is interesting to see just how the pronouncement is backed by the data. A hands-free set actually removes three of the four risk factors listed, and in fact, the one it doesn't remove (talking and listening) is the smallest (less than half of one of the others, and about an order of magnitude less than the big one). So yes, hands-free devices don't solve the whole problem - only the overwhelming majority of the problem as measured.

Interestingly, a lot of common activities (listening to CDs in your car, eating, drinking, consulting a map) entail the first of these risks ('reaching for something'), but one rarely seems complaints about these things.