Texting drivers more dangerous than drunks: study

[orleans]

Source: reuters

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Sending text messages from your mobile phone while driving is more dangerous than climbing behind the wheel under the influence of drink or drugs, a study by Britain's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has found.

The reaction times of people texting as they drove fell by 35 percent, while those who had consumed the legal limit of alcohol, or taken cannabis, fell by 21 percent and 12 percent respectively, according to the study.

The study, which was commissioned by motoring group RAC Foundation, also found that the ability to stay in lanes or maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front was worse than drivers under the influence of cannabis.

"This research demonstrates how dangerous it is to drive and text," TRL Senior Human Factors Researcher Nick Reed said in a statement.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSLI65189720080918

[polichick]

1. My God, anyone who texts while driving should lose their license.

[Coventina]

4. Agreed. They should lose their license PERMANENTLY!

Anyone who is dumb enough to text while driving is a special kind of stupid who should never be trusted again!

[SemperEadem]

6. and be hit with a crippling fine

[Kolesar]

10. They could work from home on a keyboard since they are good at it! eom

[BlueJazz]

17. I Like That..... I LIKE That !!

:) :)

[JonQ]

2. Not surprising

at all.

[ixion]

3. gee, who'd have thought that keyboarding would be a distraction?

:rofl: :eyes:

[lumpy]

5. A study was necessary to determine that texting was a bad idea

while driving? Worse than driving under the influence of drinking/drugs? All stupid.

[Kingofalldems]

7. The same goes for cell phone yappers

[customerserviceguy]

19. It depends

there are those who can talk on a cell phone with the same attention to driving that those talking to a passenger can muster. A dead giveaway for me to see if the moron next to me is NOT in that group, is if I see their eyes looking in the direction of the phone.

What the fuck do they expect to see?

[TalkingDog]

8. Woo-Hoo! I don't text. Does that mean I can drink more before driving? n/t

[Alcibiades]

9. Let's not forget that the engineer on that train out in California

was texting when he failed to see the signals and caused an accident that killed 25, including himself. It was easy to find this out, because his last message ended in "Oh no! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!"

There are all kinds of things that people have about "don't try and drive or operate heavy equipment" warnings on them, mainly pharmaceuticals. Apparently, phones and PDAs also need these warnings. You'd think this would be obvious, sort of like "don't let your toddler play with a full bucket" or "don't use this hairdryer in the bathtub," but they have stickers on those items, too.

We seriously need to put public service announcements on TV about this. Sad but true.

[customerserviceguy]

20. There's one more thing at work there

why do we depend on silly lights by the track for the entire train control system? My grandfather used to go out and swing a colored lantern by the railroad track in the 1920's, to signal things to a train, haven't we gotten better technology since then?

If we can keep track of hundreds or thousands of airplanes in the US skies, why can't we use GPS-based tracking systems and automated warning systems with two-way communication with engineers? Why do we rely on some idiot having to see a light as his train is whizzing by at 60 MPH?

[Alcibiades]

21. Good point

I like to watch trains with my boy. In town, the engineers seem alert, but out of town, they seem downright casual.

[rkc3]

11. IMO - the worst part of texting is not the occasional accident...

It's that traffic congestion is getting worse because are distracted with texting, cell phone yapping, reading, jerking off - whatever - instead of driving.

How much time do you lose every day because 30% of the drivers are texting to their friends about nothing?

Texting While Driving needs to carry heavy fines.

[BlueJazz]

18. Yep..I go from Bank to Bank during the day (Computer service) and...

..I can't count the number of times a "Texter" will sit at a light that's green or change lanes without even looking or blow right through a red light in front of me.

One time this lady was in front of me...light turned Green...she kept talking and texting...Finally saw the light (after 30 seconds...the light changed)
..put her phone down and went right through a red light almost hitting a school bus... Geez..

[Indenturedebtor]

12. On a related note - a drunk 25 year old has the same driving abilities as a sober 70 year old

Reaction time, depth perception, propensity for accidents etc.

How about we end all this bullshit and get public transport in every city over 1 million people.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

13. I say every city over 100,000.

Unlikely, I know, but that would be ideal.

[Psephos]

24. We could make it universal by saying everyone else has to do whatever *we* say or go to prison n/t

[Celeborn Skywalker]

26. Uh no.

It would be nice, though, to have public transport more widely available for those who need and want it.

[XemaSab]

27. I say every city *AND COUNTY* over 10,000

:thumbsup:

[Trillo]

14. Don't the 'big-city' police do this in their cars?

Or do they pull over before using their computer keyboards?

[slackmaster]

15. I saw a young woman texting while driving on the freeway yesterday morning

She was going about 60, eyes cast down toward her lap, no hands visible on the steering wheel, mindless grin on her face, paying no attention to the traffic at all.

At least drunks usually look where the fuck they are going.

[Coventina]

33. "At least drunks are trying"

is the way one poster put it.

I can't top that one.

[damntexdem]

16. Yeah, besides it's no fun texting drunks.

They can't understand what you text, and they slobber all over the phone.

[JerseygirlCT]

22. I CAN NOT believe people actually do this.

Honest to goodness, if it's that all-fired important, pull over.

[orleans]

23. of of course it's not--remember back in the day (? at least i remember)

we didn't even had cell phones--had to wait till we got home or to a gas station or restaurant to make a phone call.

texting? ugh.

[JerseygirlCT]

31. Oh I do remember the day!

I've been telling my college kid about how I had to communicate with friends via letters. The snail mail kind. B/C phone calls, long-distance, were just way too expensive.

[Lorien]

39. Yep. We wrote complete words and paragraphs

and usually did it longhand. Something I'm sure many can't even imagine having to do today.

[otohara]

34. My Kid

I just sent this off to him - he and all his "really smart" college friends do it, especially the girls, who are faster at texting than the guys.

[JerseygirlCT]

35. I'm pretty sure mine knows

he'd be in HUGE trouble.

[Lorien]

38. Or just TALK on the damn phone

why do people get so addicted to texting? I think they're just lousy at having normal conversations. Texting is a more expensive service, more time consuming and requires both attention AND eyes on the device. Texting on the road is simply insane.

[depakid]

25. Apparently, the Metrolink conductor was texting when he ran the red in LA

California bars train operators' cellphone use

Federal railroad regulators have refused repeated requests over the past five years from safety advocates to prohibit cellphone use by train operators, one of the key issues to emerge in last week's fatal commuter train wreck in Los Angeles.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously passed an emergency order barring use of cellphones and similar electronic devices by engineers operating trains. The move came after revelations that the engineer of a Metrolink commuter train that crashed Sept. 12 had been text messaging shortly before the crash that killed 25 people.

More: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-18-train_N.htm

[XemaSab]

28. How is this illegal for cars carrying ONE PERSON even if you're going down a PERFECTLY STRAIGHT

FREEWAY (such as, for example, Interstate 5 in Kern, Kings, Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo, Colusa, Glenn, and Tehama counties) but it's OK for someone driving a train with 500 people on it to be goofing off behind the switch?!?!?!

I'm shocked this was ever legal. :o

P.S. I-5 in all the aforementioned counties is a horrible speed trap. Don't talk on the phone, space out, and try to pass a truck with no cognition of how fast you're really going, 'cause even if you get the NICE cop who knocks 3 MPH off on your ticket, it's still going to be many, many, many hundreds of dollars that you will NOT be happy about.

P.P.S. This did not happen to me personally, but if it DID happen, it happened before talking on the phone was illegal. And to add insult to injury, I was calling my boss to tell her that my dog died the previous day and I was going to be taking a couple days off work. If it happened to me personally, which it didn't.

[depakid]

29. Those counties have to enhance their revenues some way

And you're right- they will bust you on the loneliest of stretches.

Sometimes via a Cessna, who calls it in to waiting cops who'll waive you over up the road!

Some thoughts on the Metrolink deal: "why wasn't there a failsafe in place?"

Some jerk texting teenaged "train aficionados" runs a red light near Stony Point and causes immeasurable carnage.

That sounds foreseeable to me.

[Lorien]

40. Yep. A former coworker of mine was on that train

she was already having trouble getting enough work to get by, and now she's so banged up from the crash that it will be months before she can pound the pavement again, but at least she survived. What a completely senseless tragedy.

[latebloomer]

30. A good friend of mine was kiled in a head-to-head collision

with a 19-year-old who was texting while driving.

My friend was 40 and was a devoted mother to a 6-year-old girl.

Tragic and infuriating.

[orleans]

36. really sorry about your friend. what a terrible thing to happen. n/t

[latebloomer]

37. Thanks so much

It was truly a tragedy. She survived cancer years back, only to be killed in an act of sheer senselessness.

[nichomachus]

32. And fatigue is just as bad as being drunk

People who have worked double shifts or are working two jobs -- don't get enough sleep -- and then get behind the wheel are just as dangerous as drunk drivers.

http://www.tacsafety.com.au/jsp/content/NavigationController.do?areaID=13&tierID=3&navID=AE69B5F57F0000010085AA40F1C2B24F&navLink=null&pageID=392

[bikebloke]

41. Don't forget watching DVD's while driving.

I pulled up beside a car sitting at a light. He had a portable DVD player sitting below the dash. So you know which direction his eyes were directed. Of course, our Virginia lawmakers, at the urging of some christo-nutter mullah, passed a law making illegal to watch porn while driving. I guess it's alright to kill someone while watching Star Wars or Lucy reruns.