| Aug 04 |
Teens know distracted driving car accidents kill, but text, call anyway
This finding came via a study conducted by Seventeen magazine and AAA auto club and reported by USA Today. It reported other common forms of distracted driving among teens as eating, adjusting a music device, applying makeup and driving with four or more other teens in the vehicle. |
America’s teens seem to have a disconnect between what they’ve been told and what they do. They’ve been told and given fair warning that distracted driving is deadly, killing 6,000 Americans yearly and injuring hundreds of thousands. Yet 86 per cent of teen drivers indulge in distracted driving anyway, often in the form of texting or making cell phone calls while at the wheel.
| Oct 02 |
CellControl could curb distracted driving, cell phone accidents
With thousands dead and hundreds of thousands injured as a result of cell phone accidents, a national summit on distracted driving addressed the issue this week. Now a new gadget also responds to the car carnage. It’s called CellControl. Introduced at the distracted driving summit in Washington, D.C., CellControl is a tiny device that can be attached to a car’s on board computer, a part of almost all vehicles built since 1996. After downloading CellControl’s software to a cell phone, the phone will cease functioning whenever the vehicle is in motion, though it will function when the vehicle is stopped. That’s right: No texting. No emails. No calling. No receiving calls. In short, no potentially fatal driving distractions. |
The world is dangerous enough beyond our control, yet many of us also need protection from ourselves. That includes the millions of Americans who blithely chat on cell phones, send and receive texts and otherwise disengage from their primary — and life-protecting — task of driving a car.| May 15 |
Cell phone accidents may spark driving law to silence Texas teen talkers
This week the Texas House tentatively approved a measure which would ban teens under age 18 from using a cell phone while driving, even if the phone is a hands-free device. Exceptions would be made only for making emergency calls while behind the wheel. |
Texas teens, soon two of your favorite pastimes will be split. Going to the mall and enjoying a burger? No, cell phone talking or texting — and driving.| Sep 09 |
Hike driving age? Take a hike, some say, but stats don’t lie
In Texas, that age is now 16. The lowest driving age is 14 years and three months (why the three months extra?) in South Dakota. The highest driving age is 17, in New Jersey. And what’s happened in Bruce Springsteen country? The number of young drivers killed in teen driving crashes is consistently lower than in neighboring states with lower driving ages. |
Teens aren’t going to like it, but what’s to like about being dead? Spurred by the fact that 5,000 teen drivers die annually in traffic accidents — and are 10 times more likely to have a crash than drivers 30-59 years old — some are calling for raising the driving age.