I saw this article in the paper this week and decided to share the jest of it with you. As mobile marketers, proponents and users, it’s important for us to keep up with the laws pertaining to mobile devices, safety issues, etc. It’s also important for us to be in the know so we can make informed decisions when voting and supporting certain stances.
Road deaths spur U.S. push for ban
Compiled by Democrat-Gazette Staff from Wire Reports
Texting, e-mailing or chatting on a cell phone while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed, federal safety investigators declared Tuesday, urging all states to impose total bans except for emergencies.
Inspired by recent deadly crashes – including one in which a teenager sent or received 11 text messages in 11 minutes before an accident – the recommendation would apply even to hands-free devices, a much stricter rule than any current state law.
The unanimous recommendation by the five-member National Transportation Safety Board would make an exception for devices deemed to aid driver safety suas GPS navigation systems.
A group representing state highway safety offices called the recommendation “a game-changer.”
“States aren’t ready to support a total ban yet, but this may start the discussion,” Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, said.
Safety board Chairman Deborah Hersman acknowledged the recommendation would be unpopular with many people and that complying would involve changing what has become ingrained behavior for many Americans.
While the National Transportation Safety Board doesn’t have the power to impose restrictions, its recommendations carry significant weight with federal regulators and congressional and state lawmakers. Another recommendation issued Tuesday urges states to aggressively enforce current bans on text messaging and the use of cell phones and othe rportable electronic devices while driving.
“We’re not here to win a popularity contest,” she said. “No e-mail, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life.”
Currently 35 states and the District of Columbia ban texting while driving while nine states and D.C. bar hand-held cell-phone use. Thirty states ban all cell-phone use for beginning drivers. But enforcement is generally not a high priority, and no state bans the use of hands-free devices for all drivers.
[note from Carrie inserted here. I don't want to type out the whole entire article. You can search the the title on Google or at the Democrat Gazette site if you want to read the whole thing. But since this pertains to mobile marketing as it pertains to mobile devices I feel it's revelant to recap some of the other points of this article. See below.]
There is discussion related to “mobile devices” that include entertainment devices and OnStar or of course even hands free mobile devices.
The imputus for the discussion on state bans was a deadly highway pileup near Gray Summit, Mo. last year in which a 19 year old pickup driver was sending messages at the rate of 1 a minute for 11 consecutive minutes right before a deadly accident.
Because the use of cell phones in this manner is becoming so prevalant, it has become routine to immediately request the preservation of cell-phone and texting records when an investigation begins.
Last year, 3092 deaths or 9.4 precent of road fatalities, were related to driver distrction according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
And it’s not just cars, folks. A train collision that killed 25 people in Chatsworth, California and a tugboat accident involved texting, talking on cell phones and laptop use by the pilots! In another incident a Northwest Airline flight sped more than 100 mile spast its destination because both pilots were working on their laptops (or was it porn or games – I mean, if you’re a pilot your “job” is to fly the plane. Can you explain to me how it was that they were “working” on their laptops…distracted from doing their jobs?)
Last year 11 people were killed with a guy dialing his cell phoone crossed a median and collided with a 15 passenger van.
In the incident invovling the teenager that caused the pileup involved, get this, the teenager was texting a friend about the all important events of the night before – 11 texts in 11 minutes while driving. So important! Traveling 55 mph on the highway hit a tractor truck that had slowed for highway construction. (Huge potential for endangering others coming up!) A school bus rear ended the pickup and overrode it. A second schoo lbus rammed into the back of the first bus.
The pickup driver and a 15 year old student on one of the buses were killed. Thirty-eight other people were injured. 50 students were on the buses headed to Six Flags. Their day was shot.
So, there you have it. It’s unsafe to do distracting things while driving. But we only have two choices. Let folks keep doing it and figure out for themselves while leaving a huge wake in their path, or come down heavy with all out bans and all encompassing enforcement. I’m never a fan of big government, but it is scary as all get out to think that not only is a dingle berry teenager driving, he’s texting, non-stop about “more important thing” than my life or anyone else’s around him. And what’s worse, so are old men, and middle aged men, and well, everyone.
I guess the only solution is pre-programmed vehicles that will take us where we go and do the driving for us, like George Jetson had. That’s the ticket. Then we can talk, visit, text, watch porn, change clothes, eat, make coffee or anything else we want to do, while traveling.