The last phone call

What is texting while driving? According to WIKIPEDIA, texting while driving is the act of composing, sending, reading text messages, email, or making other similar use of the web on a mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle. This act is dangerous and has caused fatal crashes. Globally, the act has been outlawed in some […]

What is texting while driving? According to WIKIPEDIA, texting while driving is the act of composing, sending, reading text messages, email, or making other similar use of the web on a mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle. This act is dangerous and has caused fatal crashes.
Globally, the act has been outlawed in some parts of the world or restricted. In the UK, the use of a hand-held mobile or similar device while driving, or supervising a learner, is illegal. This includes when stopped at traffic lights, the only exception are emergency calls. Texting while driving has been outlawed in a good number of States in the United States such as Arizona, Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana and Maryland among others. The States of Texas prohibits school bus drivers from texting while transporting a child under 17 years.
On October, 2009, the US Department of Transportation announced President Barrack Obama signing of an executive Order directing Federal employees not to engage in text messaging while driving government owned vehicles. This, according to the Department sends a clear signal to the American public that distracted driving is dangerous and unacceptable. On January 26, 2010, the Department announced a federal ban on texting while driving by truckers and bus drivers. Texting while driving leads to increased distraction behind the wheel. In 2006, Liberty Mutual Insurance Group conducted a survey of more than 90teens from more than 26 high schools. The result showed that 37 percent of students considered texting to be “very” or “extremely” distracting.
A study by the American Automobile Association discovered that 47percent of teens admitted to being distracted behind the wheel because of texting. Distraction while driving is alarming because 40percent of all American teens say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put people in danger. Eleven per cent of drivers aged 18 and 20 who were involved in a crash and survived admitted they were sending or receiving texts when they crashed. In 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  reported that driver distraction was the cause of 18percent of all fatal crashes – with 3092 people killed and 416,000 people injured The risk of crashing while texting  increases by 23 percent, because reading or sending text diverts the drivers eyes from the road for an average of 4.6seconds – t he same as driving the length of a football field, blind, at 55mph.Although talking on the phone while driving is considered dangerous, the risk increased as short message services or texting became popular. Many studies have linked texting while driving to series of fatal crashes. The International Telecommunication Union states that, ’texting ,making calls, and other interaction with in-vehicle information and communication systems while driving is a serious source of driver distraction and increases the risk of traffic crashes. The Virginia Transportation Institute found out that text messaging increases a crash risk 23times worse than driving while not distracted.
Even the use of hands free, according to the Transport Research Laboratory, makes drivers four times more likely to have an accident, with concentration levels reduced for 10 -minutes after the call had ended. The report also showed that drivers making hands-free calls had slower reaction times than those who were slightly over the drink limit.
In the United Kingdom, around 30deaths on the roads each year are linked to mobile phone use even though the royal society for the prevention of accident (ROSPA) believes this is “just the tip of the iceberg” because so few drivers admit to using mobile phones when they cause crashes. Back home, the scenario is not different. Crashes involving Distracted driving injured more than half a million people in 2008 in the Unites States of America. Deadly driving habits kills nearly 6,000 Americans a year, according to the NHTSA. Car crashes are the leading killer of youths in America –they kill an average of 11 teens each day. As US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says, “the mother who lost children, the children who lost mothers. You want no part of that kind of loss. Talking on the phone while driving causes as much impairment as drunk driving – it’s like driving after you have taken 4 beers and if you are texting while driving, you are 23 times as likely to get into a crash. In the US, nearly a third of all crashes are caused by drivers who are either talking on cell phones or texting. Studies have shown that drivers who use their cell phones for talking or texting have much slower response times than those who do not. They also have slower reaction times than people with blood alcohol levels of 0.08.Studies have also shown that people who talk and drive at the same times are four times likely to crash. Those who text and drive are twenty times more likely to have an accident. While the dangers of phoning or texting behind the wheels is undisputed, laws that ban texting while driving have not reduced the number of crashes across four states in the US. According to a study, but a slight increase in road accidents has been recorded.
The Highway Loss Data Institute compared the insurance claims in four states of California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington before and after the texting ban, with those in nearby states that don’t have these laws.
After the bans, crash patterns varied from 1% more crashes in Washington to about 9% more in Minnesota, and the largest crash increase (12%) after the texting ban was among young drivers in California.
The researchers have calculated rates of collision claims for vehicles up to nine years old during the months before and after driver texting was banned.
The study shows crashes have increased in three states after the bans were enacted, which indicates that bans could increase the risk of crashing for drivers who continue to text despite the laws.
The study notes noncompliance as the key reason for the increase in crashes as young drivers among 18-24 years are most likely to text with 45% saying they do so in states that ban texting.
It pointed out that the bans are ineffective as 48% of drivers admitted to texting in States without bans.