distracted driving Tag

A new study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has found that most teen crashes involve driving distractions. Perhaps the greatest danger faced by teen drivers is distracted driving. According to a new study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS), distractions play a role in 60 percent of all teen crashes. Even more dramatically, distractions play a role in 11 percent of all teen fatalities. Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of AAAFTS, was emphatic when he comment that the study “provides indisputable evidence that teen drivers areRead More

Researchers find that voice-controlled or menu-driven devices create a new type of distracted driving issue. If you haven’t heard of inattention blindness, don’t worry, it’s unlikely you have ever run across it before as you aren’t in the business of automotive safety. Inattention blindness is an example of a new and more deadly class of automotive safety issues that can be put under the heading of cognitive distractions. Inattention blindness is a phenomenon that can cause a person engaged in a mentally demanding task to fail to notice something happeningRead More

Led by Chevrolet, the first major automaker to have Wi-Fi in its models, the Internet is shaping up as the next big driving distraction. Chevrolet, the first major auto manufacturer to have Wi-Fi capability across its range of 2015 models, may be on the verge of offering the next big driving distraction, the Internet. Why would the automaker offer what may be the next big auto safety issue? Quite frankly, it represents an easy source of profit for Chevy. So, rather than recognizing that Wi-Fi may just be a featureRead More

At present, if police stand beside the road, they can point a radar gun which will tell them how fast your vehicle is traveling. The evidence provided by these machines is accepted in court and can result in a conviction. Now the technology is being extended by ComSonics of Harrisonburg, to analyze the signals being broadcast from your vehicle. These clever new machines can tell the difference between the frequencies used by mobile devices for voice, text, and data transmissions. So a police officer can now stand beside the roadRead More

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has now decided to put numbers on the level of danger represented by those who text and drive. In a straight comparison, the level of driving competence is the same as those who have had four alcoholic drinks. Yes, that’s right. Distracted driving is the equivalent of drunken and drugged driving with an increasing number of people being seriously injured and killed by distracted drivers. So here’s an idea from Long Island where the district county attorney is now proposing to ask courts toRead More

Well, of course, Facebook was not actually driving the car. But if the website had not existed, Phyllis Gordon, aged 89, might still be alive today. Here’s the story out of North Dakota. Abby Sletten is 20 years old and was driving an SUV on Interstate 29 between Grand Forks and Fargo. She had already sent and received several text messages, and was just settling into a session browsing through some photographs newly uploaded to Facebook. At this point, she was traveling at about 85 mph. Phyllis Gordon slowed, intendingRead More

The British, of course, are famous for doing things differently. This is not to say this “bulldog breed” is any better than anyone else. They are just different. So here’s a story about a comedian. His stage name is Chubby Brown. This refers both to his physical size and the fact his standup act is rich in expletives often referring to bodily functions. The British, it seems, will laugh at anything except, perhaps, how their public figures drive. Earlier this year, a mobile camera system was in place to monitorRead More

With a price tag of $1,500, Google Glass is not exactly aiming at the mass market. Presumably as it completes its beta stage testing and the software is tweaked, the finished product will have a more accessible retail price. But this is not the only wearable technology in the pipeline. There are already so-called smart watches and others are working on integrating hardware devices into clothing and accessories. The problem for lawmakers is to decide what controls, if any, are needed to maintain a reasonable level of safety on ourRead More

When it comes to distracted driving which is rapidly being counted in a way that makes it seem increasingly dangerous, everyone focuses on the use of modern technology. The fact we all had radios to tune to different stations as we were driving along or cassette tapes to fiddle with is easily forgotten. As is the case with all these distracting people we carry around with us who insist of talking to us, pointing out exciting things to see outside the vehicle, and passing us pastrami on rye when we’reRead More

The title is a reference to the question first asked in Ancient Rome. Who polices the police? Here we have a modern answer from Illinois when a truck driver was outraged when he saw a state trooper not only breaking the speed limit, but using his handphone while doing so. Being determined by nature, our truck driver sets off in pursuit, honking his horn until the state trooper finally agrees to stop. There follows an angry exchange of views. The officer first says state troopers are allowed to use technologyRead More