Distracted drivers using cell phones to call or text killed about 6,000 Americans in car crash accidents last year. And more and more states are passing laws banning texting or calling when behind the wheel. Yet some results of such bans are not encouraging.
According to the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), affiliated with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), no reduction in crashes occurred in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C. after bans on drivers using handheld cell phones took effect. This was based on assessing insurance claims for car crash damages.
Why? That’s a good question, since the link between cell phones and traffic deaths has been clearly established. One conclusion could be that fewer drivers in those states chose to heed the law and continued texting and talking, anyway.
Last week’s national summit on distracted driving brought much needed attention to a malady that’s killing and maiming thousands of Americans. It seems cell phone calling and texting along with web surfing is an addiction, and people can’t seem to stop doing it, even when engaged in the most dangerous thing they do each day: driving.
Since it’s not enough to say “Hang up and drive” and expect everyone to do it, anymore than it’s not enough to say “Just say no” to drugs and expect everyone to do it, states are passing laws to, in effect, legislate common sense. Up to 18 states and the District of Columbia now have laws on the books making texting while driving illegal.
State by state, Americans are standing up to resist today’s avalanche of driver distractions, largely spurred by the cell phone industry. And now the federal government is trying to help, too.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, on behalf of President Obama, is calling for a national summit of safety experts to address the explosion of irresponsible driving that’s accompanied the invention of cell phones and texting. Millions of Americans talk by cell and send texts while driving, and many of them have killed their fellow Americans in the process.
So far, 17 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws making texting while driving illegal. Congress also is mulling legislation which would cut states’ highway funding by 25 per cent if they failed to pass such laws.
Maybe you recall seeing drivers education footage showing what not to do behind the wheel. Often such lessons start as fun, with a clownish actor frantically shaving, eating, consulting maps and even reading a book while doing a lousy job of driving a car. But even with a sobering punchline about car accidents, the real joke is on all of us, now that texting while driving has entered the equation.
A recent survey for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. reveals that 19 per cent of motorists admit to texting while driving. The real amount is probably higher, since not everyone will admit doing something so stupid. In fact, another survey in Massachusetts indicates that 28 per cent of people text while driving.
Another survey shows that 26 per cent of mobile phone users tend to text while driving — and that 60 per cent of drivers 16 to 19 years old text while operating the two-ton machine known as a car.
Such behavior, in effect, is unleashing millions more drunk drivers on America’s roads. That’s because text-messaging distractions, as studies show, are the equivalent of being drunk while driving, hampering attention, reaction and overall ability to drive.
Distracted drivers using cell phones to call or text killed about 6,000 Americans in car crash accidents last year. And more and more states are passing laws banning texting or calling when behind the wheel. Yet some results of such bans are not encouraging.
Last week’s national summit on distracted driving brought much needed attention to a malady that’s killing and maiming thousands of Americans. It seems cell phone calling and texting along with web surfing is an addiction, and people can’t seem to stop doing it, even when engaged in the most dangerous thing they do each day: driving.
State by state, Americans are standing up to resist today’s avalanche of driver distractions, largely spurred by the cell phone industry. And now the federal government is trying to help, too.
Maybe you recall seeing drivers education footage showing what not to do behind the wheel. Often such lessons start as fun, with a clownish actor frantically shaving, eating, consulting maps and even reading a book while doing a lousy job of driving a car. But even with a sobering punchline about car accidents, the real joke is on all of us, now that texting while driving has entered the equation.