Texting While Driving --Another Kind of Impairment.ppt

Texting While Driving --Another Kind of Impairment Texting While Driving Is Hazardous Driving skill is measurably impaired by text-messaging. Writing text messages creates a significantly greater impairment than reading text messages, but both are harmful Texting Drivers in the News A 17-year-old texting driver in New York state swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a truck head-on, killing herself and her four passengers. A texting California train engineer was involved in the collision near Los Angeles that killed 25 passengers and injured 130 others. A 27-year-old Arkansas texting driver crashed his vehicle into another car, killing its driver (the Arkansas man was charged with negligent homicide, and had been also drinking a beer at the time). Texting Drivers in the News, cont. An 18-year-old texting driver in Texas slammed full-speed into a stopped vehicle, sending a 3-year-old passenger in that vehicle to the ICU at a local hospital with a broken skull. A 16-year-old texting driver in California lost control and dies in the ensuing crash (she was also speeding and had been drinking). What Studies Show About Texting Driver inattention is involved in about 80 percent of crashes (NHTSA, 2006) 46 percent of teenagers text while driving (AAA) 91% of Americans think that it’s unsafe to text message while driving and that it’s just as bad as driving after a couple of drinks (Harris Poll, August 2007) What Studies Show About Cell Phones Drivers talking on their cell phones were 18 percent slower braking than other motorists (University of Utah, 2005) Talking on a cell phone while driving caused impairment on par with driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent (University of Utah) What a Recent Study Assessed Impact of text messaging on driver performance Attitudes and beliefs that surrounded the activity in the 17-25 age category Study done by the Transport Research Laboratory in September 2008. How the Study Worked Studied reaction times, car-following ab