I think the transportation dept would make a whole bunch of $ if the cops started ticketing drivers who don't use their signals!!! Please!!!
Distracted drivers: are car phones guilty?
By: Drivers.com staff
Date: Tuesday, 06. November 2007
Drivers have always done other things while driving. Checking signs, traffic lights, pedestrians, and traffic behind all become so routine and automated that drivers have time left over. What they do with this time is now the subject of much public debate and a potential target for lawmakers.
Dividing attention effectively is what good driving in all about. Drivers have to allocate their attention to the most critical matters first and deal with the less critical matters as circumstances allow. These elements of driving are covered in basic training, but, over time, psychological conditioning plays a very important role. Drivers learn to attend to the essentials or they don't survive.
However, the task is not demanding enough for full-time attention. Talking to passengers, eating, grooming, checking out passers-by, adjusting the radio are all part of the normal routine of everyday driving. Being mentally preoccupied with other matters is pretty common, too. But distractions have always been a problem and, as far back as the 1970s, a major analysis of traffic crashes carried out by Indiana University 1 identified "driver inattention" and "improper lookout" as the leading causes of crashes.
But if inattentive, distracted driving was a problem before, there is a whole new dimension now. Mobile (cell) phones, fax machines, and Internet connections are turning automobiles into offices. Driver assistance technologies such as global positioning and onboard navigation systems are adding to the mix. On top of all this, things are heating up in traffic as well, with greater traffic volumes, longer trip times, and increasing frustration.
All of this is very worrying to transportation safety experts and policymakers. The debate on drivers' distractions is becoming a hot media topic and on June 27, 2000 CNN's afternoon "Talkback Live" program brought experts and members of the public together to discuss what might be done. The business world and safety organizations are warming up too. That same morning, the American Automobile Association and the 8000-strong Network of Employers for Traffic Safety unveiled a new education program on drivers' distractions aimed at employees. On July 5, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will host an Internet forum and a public meeting on "The Safety Implications of Driver Distraction When Using In-Vehicle Technologies." (The conference is now finished, but information is archived at the NHTSA site.) The issues arising in these discussions will be important for all drivers.
Statistics on drivers' distraction problems may, like the dangers of road rage, be hyped or misinterpreted to the extent that all sense of proportion is lost. Several years ago, one radio commentator quoted figures alleging that, in 1995, more than two million drivers had been forced off the road in Britain in road rage incidents.
On the CNN "Talkback Live" program, Mark Edwards, Director of Traffic Safety at the American Automobile Association quoted a studying indicating that between 25% and 50% of all crashes have driver distraction as a factor. However, as Csaba Csere, editor in chief of Car and Driver magazine pointed out, this does not mean that distractions actually caused the crashes, since other factors were likely involved as well.
"The safety experts tell us that half the accidents are caused by drunk driving, 70 percent are caused by aggressive drivers, 30 percent are caused by speeding. All of a sudden, you know, we've got more causes than accidents, and it's very, very difficult to decide exactly what the causes are.
"We currently have the safest driving in the United States we've ever had," said Csere. "The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just released the preliminary statistics for 1999 that said that the traffic death rate was 1.5 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. That's one-third of what it was 30 years ago. So whatever problem we have with distracted drivers, it can't be too bad."
Despite the huge increase in use of mobile phones in cars, and enormous public concern about them, there is reason for caution in passing laws governing their use. Recognizing the beneficial uses of mobile phones, most countries that have passed legislation controlling them have focused on hand-held rather than hands-free phones in the belief that it is the extra concentration needed to manipulate the hand-held phone that is responsible for most problems. But a recent study carried out in the U.K. casts some doubt on this.
The study, which was carried out by Aston University in Birmingham for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, was done on a simulator2. Driving on simulated roads, the study subjects were required to adjust their driving to "road" conditions that included other "intelligent" traffic. During their driving they were interrupted by mobile phone calls for several minutes and their driving performance measured.
Drivers are constantly adapting their speed to road and traffic conditions. Most of the adjustments are relatively minor and are made unconsciously. When talking on the mobile phone, drivers in the Aston study did not perform as well in making these adjustments. Interestingly, however, the drop in performance did not seem to be affected by the use of either manual or automatic transmissions, or by hand-held in comparison with hands-free phones. Even more interesting was the fact that, even after hanging up the phone, their performance did not return to normal for several minutes.
These results seem to indicate that it is not so much the device itself that causes the problem but the degree to which a driver becomes involved with it. For example, business calls over a cell phone might be more distracting than personal calls. Any in-car interruption that gets the driver involved mentally as well as physically is more dangerous that more trivial distractions.
The distraction issue is not going to go away soon. Auto manufacturers have to consider the liability implications of any technology they install in an automobile. Policymakers will be pressured to either make new laws or enforce old ones more stringently. Drivers will need better education and training to help them keep up with the increased demands of driving future vehicles in future traffic.
In dealing with distraction problems there is a lot to be said for the use of common sense. There are laws on the books in most places that require drivers to pay due care and attention to their task, as one British motorist found out recently when she was charged after taking a drink from a water bottle at a traffic light. The way these laws are enforced, and the passing of new ones, are going to be important issues over the coming years.
* * The NHTSA Internet forum on distractions and technologies in the car is now archived at NHTSA's web site.
* * Read more articles about wireless phones and driving.
References:
1. Treat, J.R., A study of precrash factors involved in traffic accidents. HSRI Research Review , Ann Arbor, MI; May-August, 1980
2. Haighney, D. E.; Mobile phone use whilst driving: the safest setup? Health and Safety Unit, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK B4 7ET
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tinahamc,
saintbumper,
STOPS Tailgaters, Distracted Drivers, Inattentive Drivers, Bumper To Bumper Traffic, Uninsured Motorists and Lousy Parallel Parkers ON CONTACT!
b's baby,
omg! cell phones or radios are totally distractions you must keep ur eyes on the road all the time cause u dont know how other cars might react so u must be careful and watch.
