Texting Taking a Deadly Toll on Roads

[Donger]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100924...dlytollonroads

THURSDAY, Sept. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Distracted driving fatalities caused by cell phone use and texting soared in the space of three years, according to new U.S. government research released Thursday.

Texting alone caused more than 16,000 deaths in car accidents from 2001 to 2007, the researchers estimated. But auto deaths involving cell phones and texting while driving rose 28 percent in just three years, from 4,572 in 2005 to 5,870 in 2008.

"The increases in distracted driving seem to be largely driven by increased use of cell phones to text," said lead researcher Fernando Wilson, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

"Overall use of cell phones have been pretty steady, but texting volumes have increased dramatically in the last few years," he added.

Distracted driving and its deadly toll was the focus of a government summit this week in Washington, D.C., at which officials called for tougher laws to counter the growing trend. They reported that more than 5,000 people were killed last year in distracted driving crashes.

In January, the government banned truck and bus drivers who travel interstate roadways from using a handheld device to send text messages.

The latest report, published online Sept. 23 in the American Journal of Public Health, uses data from the National Center for Statistics and Analysis's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which recorded all fatalities that occurred on public roads in the United States from 1999 to 2008.

Wilson's team found that drunk drivers are less inhibited about using cell phones as they drive. And there were also increased crashes into light poles, trees and other objects, with men involved in growing numbers.

"All this is consistent with people not paying attention while they are driving," Wilson said.

Solving the problem is complex, Wilson noted. He has no ready answers, but he suggested that "we need technologies that inhibit cell phone use while driving" and that more effective law enforcement of cell phone bans would also help.

Frank Drews, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Utah, said that "this is a timely study that adds another piece to the literature on driver distraction."

Drews added: "With work like this, it will be a little bit harder to deny that cell phone use while driving has a significant negative impact on public safety. I think at this point, once again, the question comes to mind, how much more scientific evidence will politicians need to put laws in place that protect the public from the dangers associated with cell phone use while driving?"

Jennifer Smith, a board member of FocusDriven, which advocates against cell phone use while driving, put it more bluntly.

The more than 5,000 traffic deaths each year from cell phone use is "equivalent to a major airliner going down every week in this country," she said. "If that was happening, they would ground all flights until they figured out what the problem was and they solved it. But because everyone likes their cell phones, we have to debate this."

Smith noted that all cell phone use when driving -- including hands-free cell phone use -- is dangerous. "All we need to be doing in our cars is driving. No phone call is that important that you can't wait until you stop," she said.

[DJ's left nut]

I haven't gotten the scoot out all season because I'm tired of dodging these idiots.

They don't tend to kill themselves, they tend to kill others.

This kind of thing should be punished just as harshly as drunk driving accidents, if not worse. With drunk driving, there's at least the argument that you weren't in complete control of your faculties when you did something that irresponsible. No such defense exists with this texting/driving thing.

It's just stupid.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Donger

I wonder what people would think about this: What if there was a way to disable a cell phones functionality if the phone "senses" that the owner is moving at, say, more than ten miles per hour? And make it mandatory?

What would people think of that idea?

#1) It could be relatively easily done, but it would have to be linked with a GPS locator in the phone, which means that people who were so inclined could disable it, as it is just "software".

#2) If said locator was also tied in with an ability to call emergency services only it might go over better.

#3) If it could also be circumvented by hands-free device, that might help popularity


I guess what I'm saying is that it would be technologically feasible, but the best way to go about implementing it might be to have a software solution that disables the screen while in motion (thus negating the ability to text) and shuts off the speaker and microphone of the phone. Thus, only a bluetooth or other headset device could work in its stead, which would free both hands.

[DJ's left nut]

You could also cut way back on drunk driving by installing a breathalizer on the steering column, yet we don't do so.

Let's just obliterate folks for doing it.

Get caught texting while driving - go to ****ing jail. Do it a second time and go to jail for a looooong time. If anyone can explain to me how this is less dangerous than drunk driving, I'd gladly listen, but I guarantee you that your average driver with a .010 is a hell of a lot less dangerous than some bubble-headed high schooler with her hands off the wheel and her eyes in her lap.

[Fish]

"All this is consistent with people not paying attention while they are driving," Wilson said.

Shocking revelation....

[Demonpenz]

#2 killer is texting #1 is Asians

[veist]

The insurance industry generally disagrees with the premise that cell phones are a great scourge in auto crashes: http://jalopnik.com/5644967/texting-...o-more-crashes

The question is how are these new distractions, cellphones and texting, being integrated into the other things drivers do when they drive. Is this adding to their distractions, or is it merely substituting for other kind of distractions? If it's only the latter, it suggests we shouldn't see too big an increase in crashes, and indeed we haven't. More than that, it also suggests that if you get people to stop talking on their cellphones or texting, but not addressing any other kind of distractions, then they're likely to go back on them.

[Bugeater]

Well the insurance industry can suck it. And besides, I don't fear for my life because of these idiots, it's just goddamn annoying to be stuck behind them in traffic. When I'm in my car it's because I have someplace I need to get to, and I don't have the patience for some ****stick going 10mph under the speed limit because he's more concerned about his ****ing phone call that can't wait.

[veist]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Well the insurance industry can suck it. And besides, I don't fear for my life because of these idiots, it's just goddamn annoying to be stuck behind them in traffic. When I'm in my car it's because I have someplace I need to get to, and I don't have the patience for some ****stick going 10mph under the speed limit because he's more concerned about his ****ing phone call that can't wait.

Its the same guy that would be dinking with his radio or trying to read the newspaper while driving. The issue isn't cellphones its reeruns that act like they have better things to do than pay attention to the road while driving.

[BWillie]

lol I text all the time when I drive, but w/ swype I don't even have to look at my phone when I'm texting and I can do it w/ one hand. So shoot me.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

lol I text all the time when I drive, but w/ swype I don't even have to look at my phone when I'm texting and I can do it w/ one hand. So shoot me.

[FAX]

I personally know 2 people who have been crashed into by texting drivers.

Curiously, women can simultaneously apply makeup, drink coffee, and eat a raisin croissant while driving with little or no problem, but have difficulty texting without crashing into something ... it's kind of strange.

FAX

[POND_OF_RED]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

lol I text all the time when I drive, but w/ swype I don't even have to look at my phone when I'm texting and I can do it w/ one hand. So shoot me.

Hopefully you have 3 hands then. 10 AND 2 ASSHOLE!.

[The Franchise]

This is why I use speech to text.....and that's still only at a red light or when I'm in bumper to bumper traffic.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

lol I text all the time when I drive, but w/ swype I don't even have to look at my phone when I'm texting and I can do it w/ one hand. So shoot me.

Good ****ing grief.....

[Duck Dog]

Originally Posted by Donger

I wonder what people would think about this: What if there was a way to disable a cell phones functionality if the phone "senses" that the owner is moving at, say, more than ten miles per hour? And make it mandatory?

What would people think of that idea?

I have a friend who developed an app that disables the texting device and sends a message back to the sender that you are in route. Insurance companies are negotiating with him for it now.