Behind the wheel, 24-year-old Caleb Amis admits it can be difficult to avoid the temptation of picking up his cell phone to check email, send a text message or post a quick Facebook status update.
"I've actually taken a quiz on my phone online while driving. I got a 100," said Amis, a University of Texas at Arlington student. "I don't remember how I got to school because I don't remember driving."
This past summer researchers from the University of Washington did it. They watched more than 1,100 pedestrians at the 20 intersections in Seattle that racked up the most pedestrian injuries over the last three years.
What did they see? About 30 percent of walkers were doing something distracting while navigating the intersections.
To prevent more wrecks, the Police Department updated its driving policy -- written before the invention of smartphones -- last month to restrict officers' cellphone and computer activity behind the wheel. The new policy now specifically bans officers from texting, posting to blogs or tweeting while driving a department vehicle.
At a legislative briefing Tuesday, relatives of men and women killed in accidents caused by texting while driving sat in committee chairs at a room in the Capitol. In front of each was a framed photograph of one of the deceased.
Three years after Austin police officers started enforcing a ban on texting while driving, the city’s chief prosecutor wants to clarify what is illegal under the law.
Just hours after a tear-laden House committee hearing Tuesday on a proposed texting-while-driving ban, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry said that Perry continues to see education rather than regulation as the solution for the increasingly widespread but dangerous practice.
A new ignition-interlock system that prevents a car from starting until the phone is secured in its docking station has hit the market. This prevents motorists from holding their phones to talk or text while behind the wheel.
Interesting, if you have kept up with this thread, how society moves toward a consensus on what matters for safety:
The major U.S. mobile operators are all putting their weight behind a campaign against texting while driving that will include a blitz of advertising and a driving simulator touring the country this summer.
Sure, they'll do anything to avoid the elephant in the room.... which is the fact that even engaging in a voice call while engaged in the divided-attention task of driving is often just as detrimental as being intoxicated.
They can come out in favor of an anti-texting law(s) while they bargain for relief from any all-encompassing anti-mobile-device statutes. And they can even appear to be safety advocates, all actual evidence to the contrary.This message has been edited. Last edited by: David H,
June 13, 2013, 10:40
JB
Evidence to support David H:
If you've felt smug and safe using built-in, voice-controlled technology for text messages, email and phone calls while driving, forget it. There are some sobering findings about the risk of distraction from the American Automobile Association and the University of Utah.
I would be distracted by that dorky headgear alone...
June 13, 2013, 16:00
JB
What if it was green and had a swashbuckling feather sticking out of it?
June 14, 2013, 13:58
Andrea W
Depends. Would I also then be able to have a sword, or at least a bow and arrow?
June 14, 2013, 19:04
Gretchen
You can carry the queen's dagger.
August 10, 2013, 12:14
JB
Lights, action, no texting
Acclaimed German documentarian and filmmaker Werner Herzog has teamed up with AT&T to create a haunting poetic anti texting-and-driving PSA aimed at high school kids.
The 35-minute documentary is part of AT&T’s It Can Wait campaign and will be distributed to more than 40,000 high schools in time for the school year.
If texting while driving is a bad idea, then breastfeeding while riding a moped is probably a really bad idea. But that didn't stop a woman in central China from doing it anyway.
