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| From distraction.gov |
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), in 2009, nearly 5500 people were killed and almost half a million injured as a result of distracted driving, and cell phones were involved in 18% of those deaths. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that 20% of crashes that resulted in injury in 2009 involved distracted driving, and 995 fatal crashes involved cell-phone distraction. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has found that drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves.
By Linda Felaco
But don't pat yourself on the back for using a hands-free phone, because another study reported in January 2010 found that hands-free phones are every bit as distracting to drivers as hand-helds. Indeed, the University of Utah has found that using a cell phone of any type while driving, regardless of whether it's hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of 0.08%.
And the problem is only going to get worse, given that a shocking 63% of teenage drivers admit using their cell phones while driving, and 30% admit to texting. According to the NHTSA, in 2009, 16% of all drivers under the age of 20 who were involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted.
Then again, perhaps their moms need to set a better example. According to a Good Housekeeping poll, 55% of mothers "multitask" while driving. Mothers using electronics behind the wheel could very well be the reason a recent study by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that grandchildren may be safer with their grandparents behind the wheel than with their parents: Kids are half as likely to be injured in an accident when riding with older adults.
Indeed, distracted driving has become so pervasive that DOT has launched a web site, distraction.gov, to combat the problem. Many states have also passed laws prohibiting various types of distracted driving, although in most states, the approach has been piecemeal. Here in Rhode Island, all cell-phone use, both hand-held and hands-free, is banned only for bus drivers and "novice drivers" (i.e., those under 18), not the rest of us, although texting is banned for all drivers. And it's a "primary offense," meaning you can be ticketed for that alone, it doesn't have to be secondary to another infraction such as running a red light.
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| From distraction.gov |
These laws don't go nearly far enough, in my opinion. As someone who grew up in the age before cell phones, I've never understood how phone calls became so earthshatteringly important that anyone would risk their life and the lives of others sharing the road with them just to answer them. And before you try to tell me you're a driver of such superior ability that you're able to juggle a phone and a steering wheel at the same time, reread that sentence above comparing driving while using a cell phone to having a blood alcohol level that would earn you a DUI conviction.
Being ticketed by a red-light camera does tend to change the behavior of drivers who consciously run red lights. Will being informed by mail weeks later of a red light they weren't even aware of running at the time get people to stop engaging in activities other than driving while behind the wheel? That remains to be seen. Unfortunately, Good Housekeeping's survey of mothers does not give much cause for hope on that score: Substantial percentages of mothers reported that they would have to either be in, know someone who'd gotten in, or personally witness an accident involving a distracted driver to curb their cell-phone use behind the wheel.