(Photo: Texting while driving) Washington,DC,USA -The Car Connection, by Richard Read -October 4, 2011: -- Over the summer, AAA conducted its fourth annual Traffic Safety Culture Index, and while the study's findings are alarming, they shouldn't surprise anyone. That's because while many of us talk the talk about distracted driving, we're terrible at walking the walk... AAA gathered data for the survey from June 6 - 28, 2011, polling a representative sample of 3,147 U.S. residents age 16 and older. Most of the survey's questions centered on mobile phone usage while driving -- particularly taking and making calls as well as sending and reading text messages... The good news is that most American drivers understand that distracted driving is a major problem. In all, 88% of respondents admitted that talking on the phone while driving is a safety hazard, and a whopping 95% were worried about people texting or emailing behind the wheel. (That's even higher than the 93% of drivers who are concerned about drunk drivers.) Altogether, 87% of respondents favored laws that would criminalize reading or sending texts or emails while driving, and 50% said that they'd support laws to prohibit drivers from using their mobile phones at all... The bad news is that many of the survey's participants don't follow their own advice. Nearly 68% said they had talked on their mobile phone while driving within the past 30 days -- though to minimize the potential damage, over half claimed that they did so only when stopped at an intersection, and respondents said they were more prone to answer calls than to make them...
* Texas - Study: Texting Doubles Driver Reaction Time. The results are a bit horrifying
(Photo: A Teen driving)
College Station,TXS,USA -Reuters/The Car Connection, by Kurt Ernst -October 6, 2011: -- No sane individual would argue that texting while driving is a safe practice, but it may be even more dangerous than previously thought. A new study by Texas A & M University’s Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) shows that texting can double reaction time... Subjects were told to drive the course while sending and receiving text messages, and then to repeat the course while focusing exclusively on the road ahead... First, reading a text or writing a text makes no difference on the level of impairment, and both actions doubled a driver’s reaction time. Drivers paying attention generally had reaction times ranging from one to two seconds, while text-impaired drivers had reaction times of three to four seconds... Still not convinced? Ponder this: a two second delay in reaction time, at fifty miles per hour, translates into an increase of roughly 148 feet in stopping distance... Labels: dangerous drivers
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