Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Also featured in WBTV's segment Protecting Your Cyberturf featuring Theresa Payton and Kristen Miranda.
TEXTING BEHIND THE WHEEL A DEADLY HABIT
Recently a young man died after receiving and sending texts causing him to slam into a truck in front of him and triggering a major highway incident. This habit of reading, responding to, or writing texts is a dangerous practice. But now the Government wants to get involved and tell you what you can and cannot do behind the wheel of your car.
How many times lately have you seen someone driving too slow, too fast, or even running a red light and you caught them texting behind the wheel? Well the National Transportation Safety Board has said enough is enough. They are proposing that texting and talking on a cell phone be illegal for all drivers across all 50 states. But is this going to extremes? Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, gives us the rundown on what might happen.
IT’S HARMLESS AND I DRIVE FINE:
According to a test conducted by Car and Driver magazine and other studies, no you don’t!
Recently a young man died after receiving and sending texts causing him to slam into a truck in front of him and triggering a major highway incident. This habit of reading, responding to, or writing texts is a dangerous practice. But now the Government wants to get involved and tell you what you can and cannot do behind the wheel of your car.
How many times lately have you seen someone driving too slow, too fast, or even running a red light and you caught them texting behind the wheel? Well the National Transportation Safety Board has said enough is enough. They are proposing that texting and talking on a cell phone be illegal for all drivers across all 50 states. But is this going to extremes? Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, gives us the rundown on what might happen.
IT’S HARMLESS AND I DRIVE FINE:
According to a test conducted by Car and Driver magazine and other studies, no you don’t!
- Car and Driver tested drivers reading texts and sending texts. They used a simulation of another car with brake lights to time how long it took them to react.
- Next, they asked the subjects to drink alcohol until they hit .08 BAC and then asked them to drive and react to the same brake light test.
(Don’t worry, the tests were done on a long strip without other cars!)
- When do you think they drove better? When they had the .08 BAC!
- We know that drinking and driving is dangerous, many establishments encourage you to take a cab instead of driving. Now we know that texting while driving is actually more unsafe!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
The NTSB has drafted a new set of rules about cell phone use by drivers of a moving car
- The NTSB cannot mandate any guidelines. The States can ignore the NTSB guidelines, adopt some, or adopt all of the guidelines
- Research from Virginia Tech showed that even hands free phone headsets do not eliminate the distractions presented when talking on the phone while driving
NTSB has said, “No call, no text, no update is worth a human life.”
- They may make allowances for on board systems like OnStar or cell phone based GPS systems
- If you are for or against the ban, you can leave comments for the NTSB or direct them to the Governor’s office of the state that you live in.
WORD OF THE WEEK: Zoo. Sometimes researchers will create their own computer viruses to test them in a controlled lab to see what the viruses do. Because they cage in these viruses to make sure they don’t accidentally get out on the internet, they call it a zoo!
WEB RESOURCES:
You can follow the plans at the National Transportation Safety Board at:
http://www.ntsb.gov/
The Governor’s State Highway Association tracks laws, by state, regarding talking or texting on cell phones at:
http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html
You can view the Car and Driver magazine’s test results and watch a video at:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/texting-while-driving-how-dangerous-is-it
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