>At least bring a designated texter along: This should be a no-brainer. Simple common sense should tell us that trying to text while driving is as stupid and dangerous as trying to crochet. We shouldn’t need a bunch of studies calculating and quantifying the risk to goad us into a response, but if that’s what it takes, here’s the latest.
A Virginia Tech study that outfitted the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras found that when the drivers were texting, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when they had their attention on the road — a figure far higher than the estimates coming out of lab research and a rate by far more dangerous than other driving distractions. And at the University of Utah, research on college students using driving simulators showed texting raised the crash risk by eight times. The variance in the figures is beside the point. “You’re off the charts in both cases,” said Utah professor David Strayer. “It’s crazy to be doing it.”
And the heck of it is, people already know that and they keep doing it anyway. “As mobile technology evolves at a breakneck pace, more and more people rightly fear that distracted driving — phone calls, e-mails and texting — is a growing threat on the highways,” said Peter Kissinger, CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which has just released its second annual safety survey. “The 2009 Traffic Safety Culture Index shows that people today fear distracted drivers almost as much as drunk drivers.” The study drives home the disconnect between knowledge and behavior:
* 80% of motorists rated distracted driving as a very serious threat to their safety, yet many admitted performing distracted behaviors like talking on the cell phone or texting or e-mailing while driving within the last month.
* Over two-thirds admitted to talking on a cell phone and 21% admitted to reading or sending a text message or e-mail while driving in the past month.
* Nearly 90% said that texting or e-mailing while driving was a very serious threat to safety, yet 18% of those same people admitted texting in the past month.
* 58% said that talking on a cell phone while driving was a very serious threat to their safety, yet 55% of those same people self-reported talking on cell phones while driving in the past month.
So what do you do with people who are fully aware of the risks and still make a conscious choice to put innocent lives in danger? Bust ’em. Bust ’em hard. And while 14 states, including California, have passed bans on texting while driving, it shouldn’t require new, specific laws to crack down. Texting at the wheel is reckless and unsafe operation of a motor vehicle, plain and simple, and it calls for zero tolerance.
from : Good Morning Silicon Valley