Texting & driving the top tech story

The debate over text messaging while driving generated the most news headlines of all technology-related topics, a journalism study found.

The dangers of texting while behind the wheel generated 8.5 percent of the technology stories in the mainstream media, according to the project “When Techology Makes Headlines.” One in 10 technology stories were dedicated to the subject over a 12-month period, said the report from the Pew Research Center’s journalism unit.

The most prominent coverage came in the New York Times series “Driven to Distraction,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. The NYT project looked at “the dangers of drivers using cellphones and other electronic devices, and efforts to deal with the problem.”

Of the media studied, newspapers and radio news programs dedicated the most attention to the debate over text messaging while driving. The Pew study speculated that since the radio headlines tended to come in “drive time,” perhaps they were used as cautionary tales.

By comparison, print newspapers underweighted their coverage of Apple and its many tech developments. Overall in the media, Apple’s iPhone attracted 6.4 percent of tech stories, second to texting.

The study compared the distracted driving coverage with other technology news topics:

Texting while driving received more than five times the amount of attention as legislative stories such as the National Broadband Plan for the United States and more than six times the number of stories as the controversy over net neutrality, a legal decision that could have a large impact on the future of the Internet.

The study’s definition of mainstream news included newspaper front pages, cable and network news, radio programs and some news Web sites. News operations dedicated solely to tech were not included. The report on texting and driving news coverage examined the period June 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010.

Researchers said coverage of texting while driving was steady through the period, not keyed to a particular event.

Better back back off, texting addicts

Motorcycle helmet seen on the Web …

Texting fingered for 16,000 deaths

Text messaging killed more than 16,000 people on the nation’s roads and highways between the years 2002 and 2007, according to a new study.

The statistics led researchers to cite an “alarming rise in distracted driving fatalities,” based on “a dramatic” increase in text messaging since 2005.

Researchers from the University of North Texas Health Science Center crunched the numbers on trends in distracted driving fatalities, driver and crash characteristics, and overall trends in cell phone use and texting usage. The primary source was the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Distracted driving-related fatalities fell in the period from 1999 to 2005, but increased 28 percent after 2005, rising from 4,572 fatalities to 5,870 in 2008.

“The increase in traffic fatalities since 2005 appears to be related to a shift in how handheld devices are used,” researchers said. The past six years has seen an explosion in the functionality of cell phones — audio, video, interactivity, applications — on units such as the iPhone and handheld devices running on Android software.

The authors suggested a mandate that new cars should come equipped with Bluetooth functionality that allows drivers to make calls without holding a phone. They also called for tougher law enforcement activity: “Criminal charges for texting while driving and routine examination of cell phone records in accident investigations may act as effective deterrents to drivers,” the team said.

The study found that “crashes increasingly involved male drivers and collisions with roadside obstructions in urban areas.” 40 percent of distracted driving-related crashes occurred in urban centers (year 1998).

The distracted driving report first appeared in the American Journal of Public Health.

DOT has eye on carmaker Web gadgets

U.S. automakers who are racing to add Web-based communications devices to their vehicles could be creating dangerous new distractions, DOT chief Ray LaHood charged.

“Let’s put safety before entertainment,” LaHood said as he opened up a new front in the DOT’s war on distracted driving.

Speaking at the second Distracted Driving Summit, LaHood noted, “In recent days and weeks we’ve seen news stories about carmakers adding technology in vehicles that lets drivers update Facebook, surf the Web or do any number of other things instead of driving safely.

“Features that pull drivers’ hands, eyes and attention away from the road are distractions.”

The DOT chief said he would be meeting with the major automakers to set guidelines for entertainment and communications systems such as Ford’s Synch and GM OnStar.

Ford’s Synch was developed with Microsoft. It includes applications for Twitter and the music streaming service Pandora.

GM has just upgraded its OnStar system with improved voice recognition that’s supposed to cut down on distractions for those driving and using the Internet.

“I don’t think we’re at all engaging in activities that are going to make it worse,” OnStar president Chris Preuss told the AP on Sept. 15. “We’re absolutely engaging in activities that will make things better.”

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said that consumers wanted the connectivity and the mission was to provide them safely.

Mercedes and BMW both have added potentially distracting dashboard entertainment options. BMW has developed a dashboard search engine for the Web.

Looking to disassociate itself from the distracted dashboard news, Facebook released a statement: “We share Secretary LaHood’s sentiment that people should never engage in any behavior that takes their focus off the road.”

LaHood also told the distracted driving gathering that truckers hauling hazardous waste will be banned from text messaging. The new rule would be closing a loophole in commercial trucking regulations.

The DOT chief also raised the possibility of “warning labels” on mobile telephone boxes.

Distracted driving deaths fall 6 percent

Deaths related to distracted driving fell 6 percent in 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation reports.

DOT chief Ray LaHood opened the second Distracted Driving Summit with the news that the roadway “epidemic” continues: “We have so much to discuss today because, last year, distraction-related crashes killed at least 5,500 people and injured more than 450,000 others.”

He said deaths associated with distracted driving accounted for 16 percent of all traffic fatalities last year, warning that the toll could be “the tip of the iceberg,” due to inconsistent reporting.

The DOT reported that 448,000 people were injured in accidents related to distracted driving. That’s just a bit lower than the 466,000 people injured in 2008. Twenty percent of injury crashes involved reports of distracted driving.

LaHood used his blog to emphasize the human side of the stats: “We are not talking about numbers, but about lives being broken and people being killed in crashes that are 100 percent preventable.”

Drivers under the age of 20 reportedly were distracted in 16 percent of the fatal accidents. But when cell phones are the chief cause of distraction, the 30-39 age group had the highest involvement with fatalities. Almost 1,000 of the fatalities were linked to cell phone use.

Of cell phones, LaHood told the Summit: “Everyone has a cell phone and everyone think they can use it while driving.” He called drivers’ use of cell phones the most dangerous of distracted driving behaviors.

Read the DOT report on distracted driving statistics from 2009.

Bus driver steers with elbow, reads Kindle

This king of distracted driving was busted by a passenger during rush hour in Portland. The driver was put on leave while TriMet transit investigates.

Dad heads for summit to tell sad tale

Amos Johnson is headed for the second Distracted Driving Summit in Washington. The North Carolina man will be talking to the media about his daughter, Ashley, who died after trying to retrieve a text message while driving. He tells some of the story in this student-produced video, “TXTNG & DRIVNG — It Can Wait.”

More: A Florida man is set to tell the summit about his daughter’s distracted driving death.

Auto Club: Texting & driving soaring

The percentage of people texting and driving has doubled in Southern California, despite the statewide ban on the practice, the regional Auto Club says.

The group’s “observational” surveys, done only in Orange County, suggest that 2.7 percent of drivers are texting and/or using smart phones at any time. That’s roughly double the percentage recorded before California’s texting and driving ban went into effect in January 2009.

Handheld cell phone use — illegal under an earlier state law — held steady at 3.7 percent, the Automobile Club of Southern California said.

The Auto Club has conducted numerous “observational” roadside surveys since June 2008, before the ban on handheld cell phone use. This is the first survey that suggests distracted driving is getting worse.

A pair of surveys conducted just after the texting ban went into effect (May and July 2009) showed that texting and related activities had dropped about 70 percent. (Photo: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs the texting ban into law.)

The Auto Club study cites the difficulties police have in spotting text messagers, but does not explain how its observers were able to get an accurate count. Observers looked at about 4,000 vehicles in Orange County at various times of day and in different driving conditions.

Text messaging drivers tended to be young and female, the survey said, with 4.3 percent texting at any time. Use of smart phones and audio devices such as MP3 players skewed to young men, at 3.1 percent.

“The rise in texting indicates that the growth of texting overall has outpaced current enforcement efforts and overcome the current law, which should be strengthened to enhance safety,” Auto Club Government Affairs Manager Steve Finnegan said in the press release about the distracted driving survey.

State Sen. Joe Simitian’s bid to toughen California’s penalties for electronic distracted driving failed in the Legislature in mid-August. He was seeking “a more significant deterrent” with the increased fines and possible points.

Fines for text messaging start at $20 and go to $50 for repeat offenses. With fees, the cost of violating the state text messaging law easily tops $200. No points go against the violator’s driver’s license, but would have under the Simitian plan.

Results from Orange County would not necessarily translate to other major population centers in California, starting with the dense urban city of Los Angeles to the north.

Distracted Driving Summit agenda

The second Distracted Driving Summit will devote several hours to using the media to combat text messaging and handheld cell phone use by motorists.

Attendees at the one-day session on Sept. 21 will hear presentations on the topics “Social Media: Reaching the Younger Generation and Beyond,” “Public Service Ads: What Does and Does Not Work,” “Communications and Media,” “Marketing/Advertising Using Traditional Media” and “Media Relations/Earned Media.”

In keeping with the media outreach theme, the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit will be webcast live from Washington at distraction.gov.

“One year after our first national Distracted Driving Summit, we will reconvene to take stock of our progress and reassess the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who will deliver the opening and closing remarks.

The first panel session, “A Year of Action” will look at the considerable progress made in the past 12 months by those seeking an end to handheld cell phone use and text messaging while driving. Moderating is Janet Froetscher, president of the National Safety Council.

“Addressing Distracted Driving Across the Modes of Transportation” goes beyond the teens and commuters that are often the focus of safety campaigns. John Porcari, deputy secretary at the DOT, delivers the update.

Following up is “Confronting the Distracted Driving Challenge Moving Forward,” with segments on employers and commercial carriers, technology and legislation.

Jennifer Smith of the activist group FocusDriven will speak before LaHood’s wrap. Smith, who lost her mother in a distracted driving crash, has been working closely with the DOT.

Questions for the panelists may be emailed in advance to DDSummit@dot.gov. Anyone can ask.

View the complete agenda for the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit.

Election hot button: distracted driving

Distracted driving has yet to emerge as an election issue in the U.S., but it’s making news on the campaign trail in Canada’s New Brunswick province.

The current Liberal government has come under fire once again for its foot-dragging in enacting specific distracted driving laws. New Brunswick remains one of two Canadian provinces without laws against text messaging while driving.

Political Conservatives have said several times during their campaign for the fall election that they’ll promptly enact distracted driving legislation if victorious in the fall.

The issue hit the front burner Sept. 6 with the death of a young man on the Trans-Canada Highway. The driver was sending a text message when he lost control of his car and crashed into a rock wall, a passenger told police.

Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward charged that the Liberals “have had an opportunity for the last few years to bring (cell phone and texting laws) forward. We’ve asked many times the minister what his position was on it.”

Liberal Leader Shawn Graham vowed that there were would be “a comprehensive piece of legislation to deal with texting, to deal with cellphones while driving and a number of other distractions that can occur behind the wheel.”

CBC News noted that the Public Safety Department had long resisted a New Brunswick ban on cellphone use while driving, focusing instead on public education. At one point it announced plans to see how distracted driving laws worked out in other provinces before taking any action.

Alward told the Times & Transcript that “New Brunswick is one of the last jurisdictions that still allows it. It is unsafe and for the protection of all our citizens, it’s necessary to do.” His party brought up the issue over the summer.

A local politician, David Kelly of Fredericton, recently asked: “What is it gonna take? “Is it gonna take a certain ration of accidents? What do we have to do here in New Brunswick? What else is it gonna take for us to go that next step?”

New Brunswick’s general election is set for Sept. 27.

Alberta also has no laws against use of handheld cell phones and text messaging. The government has said it will debate the issue this fall.

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