The cell phone has become a central part of our daily life. There are over 270 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. – 87% of the total United States population. There are also over 4 billion text messages sent – every day.
In the past, driving while intoxicated was a leading cause of traffic accidents in the United States and in countries across the globe. Today, there is an epidemic of deaths and injuries related to driving while distracted.
To reduce the cases of drunk drivers operating their cars, car manufacturers have developed devices which prohibit a driver from starting his or her car if the person is under the influence of alcohol. Aside from these devices, communities around the world have been educated on the risks of drunk driving.
These efforts have resulted in reducing the number of traffic accidents caused by drunk driving. Lately though, a new risk to traffic safety has shown itself with the advent of personal communication technology.
Unfortunately, many people are Driving While Texting (DWT). A recently released study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) said that a driver’s risk of collision is 23 times greater when they are texting. This distracted driving has been the cause of many accidents and many deaths.
- A Boston trolley car driver crashed while he was texting his girlfriend.
- Five Rochester NY classmates died less than one week after graduation because the driver was texting.
- A 22-year-old woman ran into a stationary emergency vehicle with its lights flashing while sending a text
- ASeattle man caused a multi-car pile-up on an interstate by taking a quick second to scan his email.
Texting while driving kills nearly 6000 people every year in the US alone. We are all at risk of being injured by a distracted driver.
Cell phone related accidents result in more than $40 billion each year. As cell phone use increases among all demographics the problem will only get worse. Smartphones which are capable of texting, browsing the internet, emailing and playing videos will see a 500% growth in sales from 2008 to 2013. In the last 12 months alone, the number of people watching video on their mobile device has increased 70%. An even more concerning trend is that the average teenager is texting over 1,700 times every month – with some texting 38,000 times per month. As the expert in the linked CBS report states – “texting is how they socialize”. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4768858n
The VTTI is warning of a potential highway epidemic -
“Texting should be banned in moving vehicles for all drivers. … this cell phone task has the potential to create a true crash epidemic if texting type tasks continue to grow in popularity and the generation of frequent text message senders reach driving age in large numbers. “
The government is extremely concerned. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have enacted legislation which makes Driving While Texting illegal. “The senate introduced a bill today that would essentially force the remaining states to pass a similar bill—despite there being no good way to enforce such a ban.” - NY Times, July 29, 2009. Sen. Charles Schumer, Dem (NY), endorsed the bill that would force each state's highway department to institute a ban on texting within two years, or lose 25% of their federal funding each year, which is enough to cripple a highway department if it is not enforced. The states are concerned since it appears it will be extremely difficult to enforce this law. The senator’s bill is known as the ALERT Drivers Act.
The Governors Highway Safety Association has enacted a new policy encouraging every state to ban texting behind the wheel for all drivers. Again enforcement of the law is a major issue.
In a recent AAA study, 95 percent thought texting while driving was unacceptable, even though 18 percent said that they recently texted and drove. Alarmingly, half of the drivers aged 16-24 said they routinely texted while driving. How can these laws be enforced?
Mobile phone are a ubiquitous - they permeate ever demographic group, irrespective of age, gender or socioeconomic status. While they are indispensable, use of cell phones while driving result in traffic accidents which have claimed thousands of lives and over billion of dollars in insurance claims. In response to the increasing number of accidents caused by inattentive driving, legislators have passed laws banning drivers from speaking on their mobile phones while driving, which is why car manufacturers have increasingly offered hands-free features for new vehicles.
But a bigger threat than speaking on mobile phones has attracted the attention of lawmakers - texting while driving.
There have been a handful of companies that offer technological "fixes." However, each of these companies offer software that are designed to be downloaded onto the cell phone itself. This means that the user has the ability to enable and disable the software at will. As one of our supporters recently noted: "I love your product because you are helping to save me from myself. Without your product I would be tempted to disable anything I loaded on my phone that was designed to stop me from texting and driving." This is where Drive Safely provides the only legitimate solution - a product that does not allow manipulation or disablement by the cell phone user.