![]() #Driving statistics by undistracted drivers drivers#By comparison, several field and laboratory studies show that drivers talking on cellphones are four times more likely to cause a crash than other drivers. The formal results of the light-vehicle study should be available later this year. Preliminary results from that study show risk levels for texters roughly comparable to those of the truck drivers. That study, which is undergoing peer review and has been submitted for publication in The Journal for Human Factors, also found that drivers took their eyes off the road for around five seconds when texting. In a study over the last 18 months, college students using a sophisticated driving simulator showed an eight times greater crash risk when texting than when not texting. The results of the Virginia Tech study are buttressed by new laboratory research from the University of Utah. In December, phone users in the United States sent 110 billion messages, a tenfold increase in just three years, according to the cellular phone industry’s trade group, CTIA. The issue has drawn attention after several recent highly publicized crashes caused by texting drivers, including an episode in May involving a trolley car driver in Boston who crashed while texting his girlfriend. Texting also is a relatively new phenomenon. One difficulty in measuring crashes caused by texting drivers and by drivers talking on phones is that many police agencies do not collect this data or have not compiled long-term studies. But legislators in some states have rejected such rules, and elected officials say they need more data to determine whether to ban the activity. New York legislators have sent a bill to Gov. Thirty-six states do not ban texting while driving 14 do, including Alaska, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. “You should never do this,” he said of texting while driving. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |