Texting while driving

[jmra]

If you have ever texted while driving or if you have teenaged drivers, this is a must see/share.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0[/youtube]

[carlson1]

Wow! What an eye opener.

[MadMonkey]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

[carlson1]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

For me I am not willing to take that risk. I do not know a teenager who is capable.

[jmra]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

For me I am not willing to take that risk. I do not know a teenager who is capable.

I'm sure the young men in this video felt they were more than capable of texting and driving...

[n5wd]

Powerful video - thanks for sharing it.

I try and impress the kids I talk with about how quickly things can go wrong while you're driving; it takes 100% of your attention if you're going to operate a motor vehicle, whether it's a motorcycle, a passenger car, or a commercial vehicle, safely. And there aren't any make-up tests if you fail any one of those exams.

[jimlongley]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

I disagree wholeheartedly. If you are driving, your responsibility is to be paying attention to your driving 100% of the time. Even if there is no one else on the road, you are putting other people at risk, including family members who might have to suffer for your actions.

If you move your attention from driving to the phone, it takes you a relatively long period of time to refocus, and then when you finish what you're doing, it takes just as long to refocus on driving. All that period of inattention is long enough for tragic things to happen. If you text while driving, you are being an idiot about it.

[Oldgringo]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

For me I am not willing to take that risk. I do not know a teenager who is capable.

...or an adult either.

[Keith B]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

I disagree wholeheartedly. If you are driving, your responsibility is to be paying attention to your driving 100% of the time. Even if there is no one else on the road, you are putting other people at risk, including family members who might have to suffer for your actions.

If you move your attention from driving to the phone, it takes you a relatively long period of time to refocus, and then when you finish what you're doing, it takes just as long to refocus on driving. All that period of inattention is long enough for tragic things to happen. If you text while driving, you are being an idiot about it.

I have seen way too many drivers that were distracted while texting. Talking on the phone is a bad enough distraction, but when they divert their eyes to focus on the screen to dial or text, then they have lost the ability to control their vehicle properly and will start drifting in the lane.

[Abraham]

Some firmly believe they drive better when drunk too or can safely read a book while driving or...and they're all WRONG!

Driving should be just that and nothing else.

[JALLEN]

The trouble is that you do it and get away with it, until you don't.

For some reason, doing something stupid and getting away with it is prima facie authority for doing it again. We see this quite often in flying airplanes in dubious weather.

If you keep doing it, eventually the stupid wins.

[Jumping Frog]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

As I handle risk management for my transportation-related company, I am well acquainted with the studies and data on this topic. Your post displays either significant ignorance on the subject or a willful denial of the facts. I would respectfully urge you to reconsider this subject.

The only time I am willing to read or send a text message when behind the wheel is if I am sitting stopped by the side of the road or at a red light. A person who is texting while driving is as impaired as an intoxicated driver.

[Venus Pax]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

I disagree wholeheartedly. If you are driving, your responsibility is to be paying attention to your driving 100% of the time. Even if there is no one else on the road, you are putting other people at risk, including family members who might have to suffer for your actions.

If you move your attention from driving to the phone, it takes you a relatively long period of time to refocus, and then when you finish what you're doing, it takes just as long to refocus on driving. All that period of inattention is long enough for tragic things to happen. If you text while driving, you are being an idiot about it.

I agree.

[MotherBear]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

Respectfully, I think you're wrong. I do everything I can to reduce my family's risk on the roads. I'm religious about car seat installation and proper buckling and so on. I refuse to even look at the phone while driving. I do as few lane changes as possible. I strictly follow the speed limit. I'm very careful about safe following distance. But all it takes is for "the other guy" to think he can text and drive, and it could be the lives of my kids. Do me a favor and reconsider. Is there anything on your phone that's important enough to be worth that risk?

[The Annoyed Man]

The key is to not be an idiot about it. I don't have a problem with people texting and driving, unless they're doing it at a time when they're putting other people at risk (I.E. in traffic, in neighborhoods, etc). It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

As I handle risk management for my transportation-related company, I am well acquainted with the studies and data on this topic. Your post displays either significant ignorance on the subject or a willful denial of the facts. I would respectfully urge you to reconsider this subject.

The only time I am willing to read or send a text message when behind the wheel is if I am sitting stopped by the side of the road or at a red light. A person who is texting while driving is as impaired as an intoxicated driver.

At 55 mph, you cover 80.7 fps. A 2 second distraction puts you 161.4 ft further down the road before you look up. A 10 second distraction puts you 807 ft further down the road before you look up. . . . . . and this assumes that you're driving a straight line and keeping within your lane. . . . .

9 times out of 10 these days, when I see someone behind the wheel who appears to be obviously intoxicated, if I catch up to them and can actually see them, they're not drunk. They're texting.

The fact is, I don't believe that most drivers are that skilled, even sober, and even without a phone in their hands. MadMonkey, this is not to beat up on you personally. I know you personally to be a man of integrity. But I have to respond with a couple of thoughts. . . .

One: It is a scientifically proven fact that the human brain actually cannot multitask. It isn't designed to. Its circuits don't work that way. It cannot "multi-thread." What can happen is that a rare number of individuals can train their minds to change tracks back and forth more quickly than others. But even they are not parallel processing data. They are switching back and forth between data streams. They just do it faster than the average human. The problem with this is that a given data stream does not stop streaming while your focus has been drawn away from it and onto another data stream. The missing data cannot be recaptured once you switch back to the previous data stream. It is lost data. Consequently, even if you hold your phone up in front of your face and convince yourself that you can peripherally see what is happening through the windshield, that's not what is actually happening. Yes, your eye is seeing the blurred changing color and light values in the background when you look at your phone, but your eye does not end at the back of your eyeball. The human eye is actually an extension of the human brain, and your brain is not processing and obtaining any meaning out of those blurred background shifts in color or light, because it is busy processing and obtaining meaning out of what it sees on the phone's display. This very immutable fact about how the human brain is constructed is what makes things like sleight of hand tricks possible. Even though both of the magician's hands are in plain sight, you are focused on the hand that he has drawn your focus to, and you literally do not see what the other hand is doing, even though it it is happening right in front of you. This is why you cannot actually see the road you are traveling down, right in front of your face, when you are also looking at the phone display, right in front of your face.

Two: As I mentioned, those individuals who are able to make the switch between data streams more quickly than other individuals are actually few and far between. Even so, the laws of nature are immutable, and during the time they are focused on Data Stream B, the data flowing through Data Stream A is still being lost. They are just losing smaller increments of it. You yourself said:

It's possible to pay attention to both the road and a phone, but beyond most people's capacity.

I submit that ALL drivers lack the capacity. It's just that some suck at it less than others. . . . .and that's simple biology. Everybody who tries to defy biology is an idiot. It's just that some are bigger idiots than others, and that is tied directly to the degree that they are in denial about their lack of skills or impairment of skills.

And that includes me too, so I'm not singling you out as an idiot. Me? I have a foolproof system. . . . .I hand the phone to my wife and tell her, "read that to me." If it is from a client, and it is really important, then I tell her, "type this [......] and hit send."

I'll talk on the phone hands-free. To me that is no worse than talking to my passenger. But I won't text because I can't account for what is going to happen during the precious seconds my eye is drawn away from the road.

Jumping Frog, one of my best friends is a risk assessment specialist for an insurance brokerage of which he is part owner. Don't get him started on texting while driving. If this video isn't a deterrent, then the actuarial numbers ought to be. They are significantly bad.