Ending Distracted Driving Dangers of Distracted Driving

Is There a Solution to Texting and Driving

Bruce Sheridan

Clear and present danger

It is no secret how incredibly dangerous driving distracted is, no matter what your age or driving experience. Drivers are 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident when they drive distracted, and are four times more likely to be seriously injured.

Some people are touting this epidemic as the new drunk driving, and research indicates that texting while driving is just as dangerous as driving with a .08 BAC. Sending or receiving a text on average pulls your eyes away for just less than five seconds, or enough time for your new car traveling at 55 mph to clear a football field.

Driving distracted is estimated to cause over 400,000 injuries and 3,000 deaths a year. Over 25% of accidents involve a distracted driver, at least that is as many as they could prove were distracted at the time. It is especially prominent with young people, as the vast majority of teen drivers admit to driving distracted in one way or another.

What are our options?

It's clear this is a serious problem, and it is also clear that there is no way America is simply going to stop communicating and drive, not in the type of culture we have now. So what can we really do about it? How can we improve the safety of vehicles or our driving to counter this problem?

Many states have gone as far as to completely ban cell phone usage for any age group, and most have a complete ban on texting. If you do text and drive, don't be surprised when you get pulled over.

Many people would simply say hands free devices, but studies show that this really doesn't help at all. When you use your brain to communicate, it basically pulls away your brain's resources that are dedicated to driving, as much as 37%.

Technology doesn't seem to offer a perfect solution just yet, but that doesn't mean people aren't trying. Many ideas include a built in function to phones that searches for signals put out by your car, so that it knows when you are in a vehicle. These devices would then prevent the phone from being used unless to call 911 or emergency contacts.

A better solution may be to equip cars with the ability to sense other vehicles, weather conditions, traffic status and other factors to give the car a safety AI that would be able to warn you about things it detects.

Or maybe we should all just stop driving completely and let the cars drive themselves, like Google's car can. Only time will tell.

Previous Cheap Upgrades for Your Gas Mileage

Next Infotainment Systems Changing Rapidly