Would you stop driving and talking on a cell phone if you know it was equivalent to drinking and driving?
The truth is out there and so far, I?ve seen people on their free BlackBerry Storm and iPhones while driving.
I love making calls in the car (of course I?m using a handfree connection). It allows me to return social calls, to make appointments I’ve neglected to schedule and so on. However, according to the research, I?m dead wrong, (no pun intended). There is a lot more at stake than just my life and the results are interesting.
With cell phone use soaring and near-daily stories about the serious risks of phoning while driving, it will be interesting to see how society responds.
There are many surveys show people who talk on the phone while they drive consider themselves to be among the safest of drivers. However, they often will admin they use their cell phone while driving and know that this is a dangerous activity.
Much research has been done on this subject and the results are interesting:
In a study originally suppressed by the federal government but recently made public, highway safety researchers estimated that cell phone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in 2002.
The estimates are based on the assumption that 6percent of drivers were talking on the phone at a given time. That figure is higher today.
There is an interesting 2003 Harvard study out there.
It says that an cell phone distractions caused approximately 2,600 traffic deaths each year and 330,000 accidents resulting in serious injury.
A University of Utah study found that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a 0.08 blood alcohol content.
Nationwide Mutual Insurance has a study of their own. They found that 90 percent of cell phone owners acknowledged talking on phones while driving, and 98 percent considered themselves safe drivers. But 40 percent said they had been hit or nearly hit by a driver talking on a cell phone.
A study released last week by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that the risk of collision rises 23 times for drivers who text.
No state bans hands-free cell phones while driving. Several, including Oregon beginning Jan.1, ban hand-held phones and texting. Can you believe that?
The Oregon law met a lot of resistance. People rightly charge that other in-car activities are a distraction and that reckless driving laws are sufficient to punish the distracted. While it’s true that other activities — eating a burger, fumbling for a CD and so on — are distracting, research shows that phone use is even worse.
In any case, what we need more than laws banning cell phone use in the car are people willing to shame us away from the activity.
Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and Oprah have done more to prevent drinking and driving than blood-alcohol limits have.
People have functions with a bowl for keys and a sober person in charge of giving the keys back at the end of the night.
I can?t believe I didn?t think of that!
Many times they will also ask that their friends to bring a designated driver who will remain sober during the night.
Driving drunk is not socially acceptable. But driving attached to your cell phone to set us straight and remind us of all the loved ones whose lives have been lost because a driver felt his right to phone a buddy was more important than paying attention to the road.
required to talk on the [spin]phone while driving, even though it’s horribly convenient.
Driving drunk is more convenient than a cab or a sleepover, too. But remember, it doesn?t make it right.
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