Slashdot Mirror
Are Phone-Addicted Drivers More Dangerous Than Drunk Drivers? (axios.com)
After crunching data on 4.5 billion miles of driving, road-safety analytics company Zendrive concludes there's a new threat which just last year claimed the lives of 6,227 pedestrians: drivers "under the influence of a smartphone."
The study points out that drunk driving fatalities peak after midnight, while distracted driving happens all day, conluding that distracted driving is now a bigger threat than drunk driving. schwit1 shares this report from Axios: "Phone addicts are the new drunk drivers," Zendrive concludes bluntly in its annual distracted driving study. The big picture: The continued increase in unsafe driving comes despite stricter laws in many states, as well as years of massive ad campaigns from groups ranging from cell phone carriers to orthopedic surgeons. "They hide in plain sight, blatantly staring at their phones while driving down the road," Zendrive says in the study.
And it's a growing problem. Over just the past year, Zendrive, which analyzes driver behavior for fleets and insurers, said the number of hardcore phone addicts doubled, now accounting for one in 12 drivers. If the current trend continues, that number will be one in five by 2022.
The report concludes drivers are 10 percent more distracted this year than last -- and that phone addicts have their eyes off the road for 28% of their drive. Yet when asked to describe their driving, 93% of phone addicts said they believed they were "safe" -- or "extremely safe" -- drivers.
One even insisted that they never texted while driving, "but I like to FaceTime my friends while driving since it makes time go by faster."
The study points out that drunk driving fatalities peak after midnight, while distracted driving happens all day, conluding that distracted driving is now a bigger threat than drunk driving. schwit1 shares this report from Axios: "Phone addicts are the new drunk drivers," Zendrive concludes bluntly in its annual distracted driving study. The big picture: The continued increase in unsafe driving comes despite stricter laws in many states, as well as years of massive ad campaigns from groups ranging from cell phone carriers to orthopedic surgeons. "They hide in plain sight, blatantly staring at their phones while driving down the road," Zendrive says in the study.
And it's a growing problem. Over just the past year, Zendrive, which analyzes driver behavior for fleets and insurers, said the number of hardcore phone addicts doubled, now accounting for one in 12 drivers. If the current trend continues, that number will be one in five by 2022.
The report concludes drivers are 10 percent more distracted this year than last -- and that phone addicts have their eyes off the road for 28% of their drive. Yet when asked to describe their driving, 93% of phone addicts said they believed they were "safe" -- or "extremely safe" -- drivers.
One even insisted that they never texted while driving, "but I like to FaceTime my friends while driving since it makes time go by faster."
At lease the drunk drivers are doing their best to look at where they are going
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Myself, I never write texts or respond to emails while driving, I only read them
You are part of the problem
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Pedestrians with their eyes and mind in their phones are mostly a danger to themselves.
Drivers with their eyes and minds in their phones are a danger to also everyone around them: passengers, other drivers and pedestrians alike.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
No, there's no such thing as an "accident." There's generally a number of factors that contribute to a crash and if any of them were properly addressed you wouldn't have a crash.
This is why it's so important to not just keep the car properly maintained, but to be a defensive driver that's using good road strategy to see what could happen in the future down the road. And take steps ahead of time to reduce the risks.
This is something they taught some of when I got my drivers license decades back and it's something that they really focus on when teaching people how to ride motorcycles. The reality is that crashes are rarely, if ever, unavoidable. There's pretty much always something that could have been done to prevent the crash.
Considering how often during my MERE 10 minute commute from home to work and back again, and I see people screwing with their phones at nearly every light.
It's a major problem. Enforcement of laws needs to take it up a notch and the fines need to be severe. People are not learning a goddamn thing.
Maybe a truly devastating fine of some ferocious amount will get people to think twice. They're not right not.
Except instead of willful ignorance on drunk driving ("Get off our backs - everybody does it, and it's not that dangerous,"), it's the selfish "phone drunks".
Like drunk drivers, they're really easy to spot. They subconsciously drive a little slower while (in any lane). They fade in and out of their lanes - especially on freeway curves. They do it with extra good posture (perhaps they think that helps them navigate safely?) The worst ones are the ones holding their phones up in front of their faces and talking at them, trying to watch the road with peripheral vision - with no shame.
After a few more high profile deaths and political pressure, and a few of those "after school special" movies about cell phone driving killing children, we'll see an overly strict set of punitive laws that nail cellphone users while they drive (by the 2030s).
Maybe driverless technology will finally be the real solution for those who have to be able to "to FaceTime my friends while driving since it makes time go by faster." (Oh man... And least she was honest. And yeah, $100 says it was a she (under 25). Most dudes would never admit to that, and only someone that young would be that vain and foolish about life...)
You are wrong about this, sorry. There's a huge difference between a hands-free phone and someone in the vehicle, whose own life is at stake and who has at least a little situational awareness. A sales droid pretending to be in his office while actually at a dangerous intersection can't say "hold on a sec" - while with a passenger, there is simply no need for that. When driving around with some of my employees, they even developed a system to help the driver at dangerous spots, say turning left across traffic at a nearly blind intersection. The person in the passenger set would monitor traffic coming from that direction and say "green, green green" or "red red red" - idea borrowed from one of the hotshots movies - as it was his own butt on the line if the driver missed a suddenly appearing car from that direction while trying to also look the other way.
I have a car with a built in hands-free phone. I learned this quickly, the person on the other end can't see you and doesn't know when to shut up, at the very least, or why you might suddenly need to pay full attention. I quit using it other than to order pizza from a custom place I'd be passing on my way home.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
What is there to gain by "briefly looking" that just can't wait until later? What's the likelihood of reading a text that requires immediate action on your part? And if it does, then the 'look' isn't so brief anymore. Isn't it better to just remain alert and observant at intersections even if it's extremely boring; what's the harm in that?
I think you are ignoring pedestrian accidents that are mentioned prominently in this article. Yes rear enders have increased but so have car person and car bike accidents. Those are obviously much more dangerous.