The NY Times posted a story today citing a study of tractor trailer drivers studied and video recorded for 18 months that showed a 23x increase in collision risk, as tallied by actual or near collisions.  Think about that…it’s not 23%…it’s 23 TIMES!
The study showed that in the instance before the collision or near collision, the driver had their eyes on the phone (and off the road) for an average of 5 seconds, or enough time to cover a football field at highway speeds.  A similar study showed that teens and others typically have their eyes off the road for about 5 seconds, too, when texting.
14 states ban texting while driving, including CA, AK, LA, NJ and NC, but some states say there’s not enough evidence to ban texting while driving, primarily because until very recently (and many still don’t), most police responding to an accident didn’t ask whether the driver(s) was/were talking or texting on a cell phone at the time of the accident.  And, of course, we’re all better drivers than the next person…we don’t need to stop, they do.
Comic by Mike Luckovich.
