Please don't drive and text

"Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have."
- insurance claim

You've heard the warning, "Don't Drink and Drive". It's a common problem. Here are two stories on the topic:

No Amount Of Drunkenness Will Turn A Taco Into Your I.D.
A drunk driver passed out in his car in the drive-thru lane at a Taco Bell. While unconcious his foot was on the accelerator revving the engine and it caught fire! When the police arrived the driver handed them a taco when asked for his ID.

Study: Binge Boozing Costs Society $2 Per Drink
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a study showing that each alcoholic drink ends up costing society $2 in extra medical expenses, locking up drunk drivers, and damage from accidents.

And yet drunk driving is not the only problem behind the wheel. Driving while tired is a big problem in today's society where most adults do not get enough sleep. A great-uncle of mine fell asleep while driving and drove off an overpass.

New problems for drivers include cell phones and texting. I read one story of a bus driver who sheared off the top of his bus on a low overpass. He had missed the height warning sigans while complaining on a cell phone.

Texting may be even worse than cell phones. The Blackberry outage last month gave researchers a chance to measure the impact. In the country of Dubai, while Blackberries were offline, traffic accidents fell 20% from their average rates. In the city of Abu Dhabi, accidents fell by 40% and there were no fatal accidents during the outage.

Bottom Line

Driving is serious business. We take it for granted but fast moving cars are deadly weapons and the driver must remain alert at all times. A single distraction is all it takes for an accident.

Driver Error

"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG"- Bill Gates

Happy New Year! Today's blog is about a New Year's resolution that everyone can make to become a better driver.

According to the New York State Defensive Driving course, 95% of vehicle collisions are the result of Driver Error. Accidents that could have been avoided with better driving habits.

The definition of driver error is very broad and includes the following:

Distracted Driving - using a cell phone, reading a map or GPS, reading a book or newspaper, watching a movie on DVD, eating, putting on makeup, radio too loud, adjusting the mirrors, yelling at kids in the back, trying to text message or use a computer. People do amazing things while at the wheel!

Driving Too Fast - You might be speeding or just too fast for the local conditions. You can not expect to handle tight curves in the rain or snow at the same fast speed you use on sunny and dry days. You might be going too fast in a school zone and unable to stop in time for a child.

Driving Aggressively - there is fast and then there is crazy. People who hover on your back bumper and pass with just inches of space to spare. People who weave between cars trying to go faster than everyone on crowded highways. An extreme case of aggression is "Road Rage".

Defective Equipment - as the driver you are responsible for the maintenance of your car. If an accident occurs because the tires are bald and have no grip, the brakes are worn and slow to stop the car, the wipers are old and don't clear the windshield well - these are all preventable and listed as Driver Error. See Icy Windshields for winter advice.

Impaired Driver - it could be exhaustion from lack of sleep or chemically impaired by alcohol or drugs or medications. Check out my post on Rest Stops.

Bottom Line

Don't drive angry! Don't drive while impaired!

And pay attention while driving - check out Living Room on Wheels for more on distracted driving.

Living Room on Wheels

“When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife.”

In this modern world multi-tasking is a badge of honor and time wasting is a sin. So it comes as no surprise that people can be found eating, shaving, texting, calling, typing, and having sex while driving. (Hopefully not all at the same time.) We think nothing of it but this distracted driving carries a high price.

AAA reports that Distracted Driving - including the use of cell phones - is a major contributor to automobile crashes with 4,000-8,000 distraction related crashes each day in America; one-half of the 6 million U.S. crashes reported annually. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) blames driver inattention for 68% of rear-end crashes. Using a cell phone while driving increases your chance of getting into a crash by 4 times. A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that driving while texting increases crash or near-crash risk by 23 times.

Think of driving as a full contact sport. It requires our full attention to notice little details like a child running onto the street. I listen to books on CDs and have found that either I remember very little of the CD or very little of the drive. The book “Why We Make Mistakes” tells the story of a DC tour bus driver who was angry and venting to his sister on a cell phone while driving a 12’ tall bus. He did not notice the road signs warning of a 10’ tall bridge ahead and did not notice the bridge until he crashed into it at full highway speed tearing off the top of the bus.

Bottom Line

Hands-free phones make dialing safer but the real danger is being distracted by the conversation.

Resources
Currently, 18 states and the District of Columbia ban text messaging for all drivers. For an up-to-date list of Distracted Driving laws, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) maintains a state-by-state guide.

The National Safety Council also has a nice website showing state laws.

See Cyber Drive Illinois for more facts about distracted driving.