The Solution to the Texting While Driving Ban
Hands free access will allow anyone to text, call, and email all with voice commands. This very innovative solution to the texting while driving dilemma needs to be in the hands of anyone with a mobile device that is used for communication. Hands free access is safe, simple and most of all cost effective.
January 26, 2010, the Transportation Department is announcing an immediate ban on text messaging by truck and bus drivers on the road with fines up to 2,750. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is moving full steam ahead to keep our roads and highways safe from the ever growing epidemic of texting while driving. Statistics show that an individual that is texting while driving can travel the length of an entire football field in approximately 6 second while driving 55 mph. as scary as it sounds to be driving as if your were blindfolded, you still see people putting all of our lives at risk on a daily basis by not being responsible enough to either waiting until they are parked safely or by using hands-free technology.
I’m really not sure that we understand the gravity of the situation. I still see more and more of the problem being discussed but not much being offered for solutions by the main stream media. I guess solutions don’t sell advertising.
One in four (26%) of American teens of driving age say they have texted while driving, and half (48%) of all teens ages 12 to 17 say they’ve been a passenger while a driver has texted behind the wheel.
These findings are based on a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that looks at teens, mobile phones and distracted driving. The results were derived from a telephone survey of 800 teens’ and parents’ use of mobile phones and 9 focus groups conducted in 4 U.S. cities between June and October 2009 with teens between the ages of 12 and 18.
“Many teens understand the risks of texting behind the wheel,” said Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist at the Internet & American Life Project and co-author of the distracted driving report, “but the desire to stay connected is so strong for teens and their parents that safety sometimes takes a backseat to staying in touch with friends and family.”
“Cell phones are often seen as devices that can make our lives more efficient, allowing us to multi-task in our idle moments,” said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist and co-author of the report, “and whether you’re a teenager or an adult, it’s tempting to think you can manage several different activities at once.”
For every two seconds a driver’s eyes are off the road, a motorist is twice as likely to be involved in a crash, said Troy Green, national spokesman for Triple a.
“Texting while driving… requires your full attention and leaves no room for distraction,” Green said. “You’d have to be foolish at best and delusional at worst to think you can send and receive text messages while operating a motor vehicle effectively and safely….
We believe that’s something that should be banned.”
Texting and cell phone use have been blamed for numerous deadly crashes in the past few years.a recently released study (PDF) by the VirginiaTech Transportation Institute found that truck drivers who were texting were 23 times more at risk of a “crash or near crash event” than “nondistracted driving.” as per talking on a cell phone, the same study found no increased risk for truck drivers and 1.3 times the risk for car drivers. there was considerably more risk associated with dialing while driving. The institute’s Richard Hanowski acknowledges that the numbers are likely to be different with car drivers. as reported by CNET’s Jennifer Guevin, the study also found that “texting took a driver’s focus away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds–enough time…to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.”
Teens at biggest riskWhen it comes to texting while driving, teens are a particular risk group considering that, according to Nielsen (PDF), “The average U.S. mobile teen now sends or receives an average of 2,899 text-messages per month” and apparently some of those texts are being sent and read from behind the wheel.
A 2007 study conducted by Triple a and Seventeen magazine has been widely misquoted as 46 percent of teens admit to texting while driving. but what the study found is that “61 percent of teens admit to risky driving habits.” Forty-six percent of that 61 percent say that they text message while driving.
This issue is in the news a bit more than usual these days because of a shocking video created by a police department in the UK. it depicts a teenage girl texting while driving followed by a terrible crash with gruesome results for her friends in her car and the family whose car she hit. before viewing the video (scroll down) please be aware that it is graphic and very disturbing. and before forwarding it to a teenager, also be aware that many youth risk prevention specialists question the effectiveness of videos that try to use shock value to change teen behavior.
As of this writing there are 18 states banning the use of mobile devices for talking and texting while operating a motor vehicle. Compliance is a great thing, but even if it is legal at the moment in your state, you may want to second guess the utilization of mobile handheld devices while driving for life’s sake, not just the law. FDIVoice is a brand new tool that could radically reduce the every-growing death toll due to mobile phone use abuse while driving.
“We’re going to work with Congress on this issue,” said LaHood, a former House member. “I’ve been around long enough to know better than to talk about these things before I talk with them.”
Hands free access will put you in the driver’s seat! Don’t take risks! Be in full compliance with new hands free driving laws that will be implemented in all 50 states by performing all telecom, Email, and text functions without touching your phone!
The District and 18 states, including Maryland and Virginia, have banned texting while driving to different degrees.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has estimated that at any given moment during daylight hours, 812,000 drivers are using hand-held cellphones. NHTSA said that equates to 11 percent of the vehicles on the road. Previous research by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis found that cellphone use contributed to 6 percent of all crashes, or 636,000 a year, resulting in 342,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths.
Based on Ashlei’s comment below furthers my argument, that banning is only 1 part of the solution. we must provide a solid alternative, that will satisfy our need to communicate at any given moment. Let’s just do it responsibly. “I don’t think it’ll stop people from texting,” said Ashlei Smith, of Bourbonnais. Smith could say this in earnest because she had a car crash in may while texting, but stated that she does not plan to curb her texting.
