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Articles Tagged with distracted driving

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distracted driver can cause crashesA NY State Trooper who sustained catastrophic injuries after being struck by a distracted driver in Long Island, NY  recently died. The accident occurred 3 years ago. Joseh Gallager who was 38 year old at the time, was helping a disabled motorist on the Long Island Expressway when he was struck by Jesse Cohen. Investigation found that at the time of the accident, Cohen was text messaging with 3 different people and had 3 social media apps open in the 20 minutes prior to the accident. Gallager suffered traumatic brain injury and lost the ability to talk, walk or eat without help. He passed away on March 26th, leaving behind his wife and two chidden as well as his parents, sisters and brothers. His funeral took place last week (see obituaries in NewsDay).

Gallager is one of many victims of distracted driving. According to CBS News, in the last 3 weeks, 3 other car accidents in Nassau County were caused by distracted driving.  In 2019, distracted driving killed 3,142 people in the US, 10% more than in 2018 according to the most recent statistics from the NHTSA.

The death  of State Trooper Joe Gallager, occurred just before the beginning of  “Distracted Driving Awareness Month” and as a reminder, the police in Nassau County have been launching a major campaign enforcing distracted driving laws on their roads.

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mother texting while drivingDistracted driving has led to a surge in fatal car accidents and even parents with young children in their car admit that they use their phone while driving.

According to a study recently released by  the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and published in the Journal of Pediatrics, out of 760 parents or caregivers interviewed:

  • 47% talked on a hand-held phone
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Distracted driving by locationApril is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. A national study published last month shows that distracted driving is at its highest in the State of New Jersey. New York State ranks number four of the most distracted driving Sates. Florida and Missouri are second and third.  The report entitled “Heads Up, Phone Down: Distracted Driving Intervention” also found that Wyoming drivers are the least distracted. Distracted driving is a bigger problem on the East Coast than on the West Coast. The states with the worst distracted driving problem are mostly located in the East and the South East while the less distracted drivers are mostly located in the North West.

While looking at cities, Miami has the worst problems with distracted diving while Denver has the most disciplined drivers. The report found that drivers look at their phone every four miles in Miami but only every 6.25 miles in Denver. New York City comes right behind Miami.  Globally, distracted driving kills 3,000 people every year in the US, that’s 9 people every day.

Distracted drivers are often more reckless than non distracted drivers. The study indicates that distracted drivers are four times more likely to speed and 40% more likely to brake hard than those who are not distracted.

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distracted driving can cause accidentsMost drivers who were using their cellphone and as a result killed someone in a car accident usually don’t get more than a few days in jail.

Fair Warning reviewed approximately 100 prosecutions of distracted drivers over the last 5 years and found that light punishment is usually the norm. Only in a few cases drivers were sentenced to serve for a month or two or were fined with amounts of more than $1000.

Fair Warning also found that the risk of going to prison is almost zero for drivers who were “only” using their phone before they killed someone on the road. Drivers who got sentenced to prison usually committed at least one additional illegal action such as drinking, taking drugs or using a hand held cell phone while driving a commercial truck.

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old woman using cell phone behind the wheelDistracted driving is the number one cause of car accidents in New York City  and in the US.  While teenagers and young drivers are often perceived as the most susceptible to use their cell phone while driving, a new study indicates that seniors are indeed as bad or even worst than the kids.

While previous statistics indicate that around 50% of young drivers recognize that they are talking on the phone while driving, a new study found out that nearly 60% of seniors say they are doing exactly the same.  Conducted by a group of researchers from the Training, Research and Education for Driving Safety (TREDS) program at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, the study looked at the driving habits of 397 Southern Californians age 65 and older. Among the 82% of them who said they  owned a cell phone, 60% said they spoke on the phone while behind the wheel.

These statistics are extremely alarming as when people get older their driving can be reduced by additional factor such as a medical condition or medication use. Alertness and mental processing also often decrease as people are getting older.

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digital billboard mix for slideshow 4As billboards are getting more and more sophisticated, the risk of car accidents caused by drivers distracted by these billboards is increasing.  Jerry Wachtel,  a traffic safety consultant just released a compendium of 22 recent studies related to potential consequences for driver distraction from Commercial Electronic Variable Message Signs (CEVMS) along the roadside. The author released a previous study in 2009 warning about the dangers of such billboards. More recent studies are showing that as billboard became more sophisticated, drivers also became more distracted increasing the risk of accidents. Below is a summary of the  most relevant findings:

  • While experienced drivers are more cautious than young drivers in keeping their eyes away from distractions that are inside the car (i.e. phone dialing or map searching) they are not as cautious when it comes to external distractions such as electronic billboards.  Both younger and older drivers have a tendency to often glance for more than 2 seconds at external distractions such as electronic billboards instead of focusing on the road in front of them. When a driver takes his or her eyes off the road for two seconds or more the risk of an accident is high.
  • Drivers pay less attention to relevant road signs but focus more on electronic billboards when both types of signs are on the same road
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Use of cell phones or other electronic devices while driving is dangerous and can cause fatal car accidents. Most drivers know this but they still use their cell phones or other mobile devices to text, look at travel directions, check their emails, consult their calendar appointments, surf the web or play video games.

According to the latest National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS) “Driver Electronic Device Use in 2011“, texting or manipulating an hand held device while driving significantly increased from 2010 to 2011.

The trend is particularly alarming among young drivers and women.

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