Hope this article on why anti-texting laws don't appear to deter, from this weekend reminds you of the dangers. You can listen to it (easier) or read the transcript.
I know you do it. That you know the right times to do it, you are careful. Blah blah. But if you have ever driven behind someone who slows down for no apparent reason, you can bet there is texting involved. Or when a light changes to green and the car in front of you does not see it until you honk. Apparently in LA, this is almost expected behavior.
Anyone care to guess why using a phone in the car - phone to ear or speaker phone to ear - is also dangerous problem?
All of those phone devices cause distracted driving. It does not matter which device a person is using because no matter what, they are not fully paying attention to driving. All distractions endanger the driver, passenger, and bystander safety. I truly believe the only way to help minimize this dangerous problem is to educate Americans on the death and accident statistics regarding distracted driving.
ReplyDeleteNot that this really surprises me, but for those of you wondering, Arizona does not currently hold any state restrictions on mobile phone use - though it seems Tucson and Phoenix impose restrictions at the municipal level. Still, that leaves much of the state unprotected.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Victoria. Certainly speaker-to-ear phone usage is less dangerous than phone-to-ear because at least your visual senses are not impeded. But even this hands-free paradigm is not mind-free. Any action taken in a car, whether it be talking on your phone or reaching into the glove compartment detracts from your primary goal as a driver - driving safely.
In addition to educating Americans on the dangers of distracted driving, I would probably be in favor of increasing the penalties of using a mobile phone while driving. Sure, as the audio clip states, it is difficult to detect but I think there is some validity to top commentor Joe Gandalf's argument where he compares using a phone while driving to driving under the influence.
Using any device other than your car is distracting including the radio. I recently got SiriusXM Radio and I am always playing around with the channels. I don't know if any educational classes will help this problem of distraction either. We learn for 6 months how to drive and mostly everyone breaks at least one of the driving rules every time we enter a car.
ReplyDeleteWe are always distracted in the car, which is so dangerous, and yet the car makes it possible to have too many stations, bluetooth-enabled services, gps, improved sound systems, and even cars that drive by themselves! It's like the designers of these appliances, gadgets and cars only provide safety features at a price that most of us can't afford.
ReplyDeleteBeing distracted while driving causes too many avoidable deaths in the United States. In my opinion any form of phone use or application use is too much of a distraction. I feel that people don't realize that they are in a sense operating a mobile weapon. A distracted driver can do unimaginable amounts of damage. When your undivided attention is not given to the road not only are you putting others at risk but your putting yourself at risk as well. In my opinion nothing is so important that you have to put others lives around you at risk. If it is so important than it would be wise to pull over..otherwise it can wait.
ReplyDeleteIt has been shown that people who are distracted when performing difficult tasks are likely to have decreased performance levels. The brain takes time to focus on an individual task, regardless of what it is. As you move from one task to the other, as in texting while driving, your abilities to react quickly are significantly impaired. One thing at a time people!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/200910/easily-distracted-why-its-hard-focus-and-what-do-about-it
Can you post this in Facebook? Am creating a screencast to show to how to create links in comments. (App on my phone prevents me from showing here.)
DeleteTo do links in comments, you need to add an href tag. When doing so, the url is linkable, like so: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/200910/easily-distracted-why-its-hard-focus-and-what-do-about-it
DeleteI don't know if this has been referred to but it changed the way I feel about being distracted while driving. Powerful stuff.
ReplyDeleteFrom One Second To The Next - Texting While Driving Documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk1vCqfYpos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk1vCqfYpos (I'll add this to a screencast.)
DeleteObviously texting while driving is dangerous, however people go beyond just the texting. I've seen many people taking pictures and watching videos while driving, these are really distracting activities that occur all the time. While dangerous, we can still see the benefits of a phone such as a GPS that can help people go where they need to go and not get lost or make drastic turns at the last second, but instead give good direction.
ReplyDeleteIt even seems like when you are trying to look at the GPS on your phone it is hard to drive. I think the phones that talk to you and tell you when to make turns are ideal for drivers.
DeleteSometimes, I also do text but only when I stopped a car at red light. Because I had horrible experience texting driving, I know it is very dangerous. I don't think people can do multitasking. Even I experienced that I passed out interchange exit when I was watching GPS. Of course, sometimes, people might seem to be able to do multitasking, but that is not multitasking but fast task-switching. Also talking to someone would be a driving distraction.
ReplyDeleteGood comments. It seems you know better about when and when not to text, but if you saw the YouTube video shown above, what you THINK you can do while driving, just like what you THINK you know about multitasking are pretty much wrong. Research on multitasking (and data on accidents and deaths form texting and driving) strongly suggest otherwise.
ReplyDelete