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Computers & Cell Phones * USA - Truckers' Nav Systems as Bad as Driving While Texting
Dulles,VA ,USA -Switched, by Caleb Johnson -Sep 30, 2009: -- People continue to text message and use other portable devices while driving, despite knowing what a dangerous habit it can be... A recent study by Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute found that truckers who used onboard computers while driving were ten times as likely to wreck. For their part, truckers argue that a dash-mounted computer monitor with a keyboard in the lap is safer to use than an iPhone or similar device because it requires "less concentration"... Many of the devices feature a warning to pull over before using, but many truckers simply ignore it due to time constraints. Sure, the argument may make financial sense, but it's not a particularly comforting thought when you're cruising down the highway next to an 18-wheeler... (Photo from cache.gawker)
* ATA takes NY Times to task
Arlington,VA,USA -Fleet Owner -Sep 30, 2009: ... An article in The New York Times for Monday, September 28, was swiftly rebuked by the American Trucking Assns. (ATA) as being erroneous regarding truck drivers’ use of in-cab electronic technologies. As a result, the newspaper published a correction in today’s edition that retracted several factual errors in the piece...
The correction, as it appeared on The New York Times web site on Wednesday is as follows:
“An article on Monday about the trucking industry’s concerns over proposals to ban texting while driving referred incorrectly to statistics regarding large trucks and fatal crashes. The statistics, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, cover trucks that were involved in fatal crashes; they do not specify the number of crashes “caused” by the trucks. The article also misstated the change in numbers of fatal crashes involving large trucks from 1997 to 2007. According to N.H.T.S.A., that number declined to 4,808 in 2007, from 5,416 in 1997; it did not increase to 4,808 in 2007, from 4,777 in 1997. (In 1997, N.H.T.S.A. data differentiated between medium-weight and heavy trucks; in the 2007 data, they were counted together as large trucks.)”
Labels: techno discussions
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