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DANGEROUS DRIVERS * USA - Texting to Death
At present, 36 states do not ban texting while driving; 14 states do, including California, Alaska, Louisiana and New Jersey. New York lawmakers have sent a bill to Governor Paterson
Pleasantville, NJ,USA -The Jewish Times, by JOYCE S. ANDERSON -21 Aug 2009: ... Texting is a relatively new phenomenon that is growing at exponential speed. In December, 2008, phone users in the US sent 110 billion messages, a tenfold increase in just three years, according to CTA, the cellular phone industry's trade group... Ever since the arrival of cell phones, studies have proven that talking on cell phones while driving is dangerous. This is true whether the phone is hand-held or not... When the driver becomes engaged in conversation, either civil or heated, there is a loss of concentration and observation of other drivers and traffic signs... Texting is emerging as even more dangerous than using a cell phone according to recently released studies. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute measured the time drivers took their eyes from the road to send or receive text messages... The l8 month study followed more than l00 drivers of long-haul trucks, whose cabs had been outfitted with video cameras. They were tracked for three million miles as they delivered frozen food, furniture and other goods across the country... The study found that when the drivers were sending or receiving text messages, they typically took their eyes off the road for five seconds.At normal highway speeds, five seconds translates into the length of a football field in distance. The resultant collision risk was 23 times greater when they were texting... At the University of Utah, a study has been conducted over the past 18 months with college students texting while in a driving simulator. The results showed an eight times greater crash risk when texting than not texting... Virginia Tech is conducting a new study with the focus on texting among teenagers driving light vehicles. Preliminary results from this study show risk levels for teenage texters about the same as for the truck drivers... Researchers have done studies on all types of driving distractions: eating, drinking, combing one's hair, putting on lipstick, turning to talk to someone in the back seat. They do not agree about whether field studies are more valuable than laboratory simulations. However, they do agree that texting is a much greater risk to drivers than other distractions... (Images.intomobile: Texting while driving)
Labels: dangerous drivers
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