Distracted pet owners warned of risks

The safety hazards of unrestrained pets in motor vehicles were highlighted this week as a AAA study suggested that only 17 percent of dog owners restrain their animals in vehicles.

Researchers warned of possible roadway “devastation” as a result.

One in five of the dog owners surveyed said that while driving they allowed pets to sit in their laps.

The AAA survey on pets said almost 60 percent of drivers who transport their dogs engaged in other distracted driving behaviors at the same time.

In a bizarre coincidence, an L.A. plastic surgeon died in Malibu not long after Tweeting and texting about about his dog, which was unrestrained in the doctor’s vehicle at the time of the crash. Frank Ryan’s Jeep plunged over a rocky embankment on the Pacific Coast Highway, killing him and pitching the dog into the ocean below. (The animal survived.)

The crash came days before AAA released its pet-owner survey.

The Los Angeles Times reported that crash investigators were trying to determine what role texting played in the accident, if any. The texting connection was widely reported.

The survey by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, backed by the pet product company Kurgo, found that more than half of the drivers petted their animals while on the road. (Kurgo sells restraint products.) A small percentage admitted to feeding their dogs or playing with them while driving.

“An unrestrained 10-pound dog in a crash at 50 mph will exert roughly 500 pounds of pressure, while an unrestrained 80-pound dog in a crash at only 30 mph will exert 2,400 pounds of pressure, said Jennifer Huebner-Davidson, AAA National’s Traffic Safety Programs manager. “Imagine the devastation that can cause to your pet and anyone in the vehicle in its path.”

AAA also listed its top vehicle choices for animal safety.

The survey covered 1,000 dog owners who had driven with their animals on board in the past year.

Ryan was known for his work on celebrities and for his charity efforts in removing tattoos from former L.A. gang members.

Adults tie teens in texting, driving

Adults are just as likely to text message while driving as teenagers, according to a new national survey.

“Adults may be the ones sounding the alarm on the dangers of distracted driving, but they don’t always set the best example themselves,” said Mary Madden of the Pew Research Center.

The finding contradicts the widely held belief that texting and driving is primarily a problem with teens. The Pew report on distracted driving does show, however, that young adults (ages 18 to 34) are the most likely to text and drive, by far (59 percent).

More than a quarter of U.S. adults (27 percent) admit to texting while behind the wheel, Pew reports. Texting teens posted almost identical numbers (26 percent).

Police say texting and driving is more dangerous for teens, who have far less experience behind the wheel than adults. At any age, texting and operating a motor vehicle has been found to dramatically increase the chances of an accident.

Adults who say then have driven while on a cell phone clearly outpace teenagers, the distracted driving poll found. 61 percent of adults said they used a mobile phone while driving, vs. 43 percent of teenagers (ages 16, 17).

Nine in 10 members of Generation X (34-45 years old) who own cell phones report that they talk and drive. Seniors come in at 50 percent.

Adults 18-33 are the most likely to admit they text while driving (59 percent) compared with age groups 34-45 (50 percent) and 46-64 (29 percent).

More findings from the Pew study:

• Almost half of all adults and teens say they have been passengers in a vehicle when the driver was text messaging.
• 44 percent of adults say they’ve been in a vehicle when the driver used a cell phone in a dangerous way. 40 percent of the teens said they had. This figure decreases dramatically with age.
• Pew says 14 percent of adult drivers have run into something or someone while talking or texting.
• Men are more likely than women to admit texting while behind the wheel (51 percent of men who use text messaging devices vs. 42 percent of women).
• 82 percent of adults have cell phones. 58% text message on their mobile phones.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 2,252 adult drivers in late May and early April. Numbers for teens came from earlier reports. Adults may be more reliable than teens in self-reporting their behaviors.

Another recent report found that states are increasingly fighting distracted driving.

Forty-three states are now collecting data on distraction as a factor in road and highway accidents. That compares with 17 in 2003, the Governors Highway Safety Association reports.

Twenty-seven states have written distracted driving provisions into their Strategic Highway Safety Plans. (That’s almost the same number of states that had adopted laws on texting and talking while behind the wheel.) The SHSPs reflect priorities and programs in departments of transportation and motor vehicles, as well as safety programs.

Thirty-seven states have launched public information campaigns to warn of the hazards of distracted driving.

Teens, texting at night a deadly duo

U.S. teenagers’ most dangerous move behind the wheel? Not speeding, not drinking, not racing. It’s simply driving after dark, according to a new study of highway fatalities.

From 1999 to 2008, the proportion of fatal crashes at night involving teen drivers increased 10 percent, according to a study released May 6 by the Texas Transportation Institute. Fatalities involving all drivers fell during those 10 years.

Most of the blame for the teen spike should go to use of cell phones and texting devices, researchers speculate.

“We know driving at night is dangerous,” said Bernie Fette of the Texas Transportation Institute. “We know using a cell phone behind the wheel compromises your ability to drive. Put those together and you’ve created a perfect storm (for highway fatalities).”

Teens die in distracted driving accidents more often than any other group of drivers.

In 1999, nighttime crashes accounted for 45 percent of fatalities linked to the 16 to 19 age group. In 2008, that rose to 50 percent.

After nighttime driving, the fatality factors for drivers 16 to 19 years old were speed, distractions, failure to buckle up and drinking, according to the Texas Transportation Institute.

While almost all teens understand that drinking and driving costs lives, very few were aware that motoring at night was a separate risk factor, the study said, citing a survey of Texas teens.

The researchers also cited teen driver fatigue as a likely contributor to these fatality numbers. The nationwide data did not track cell phones or fatigue, however.

The researchers pointed to the dramatic increase in use of handheld electronic devices behind the wheel as the basis for their conclusion on distracted driving.

Several state legislatures in 2010 have considered plans to increase the restrictions on young drivers with restricted licenses. Some states ban cell phone use for teen drivers, period (handheld or hands free).

The percentage of night-driving fatalities also was up (8 percent) for adults, but the researchers felt alcohol use probably was the main contributor to that rise.

Overall, fatalities fell about 11 percent in the 10-year period, according to data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The increased proportion of nighttime fatalities is what alarmed the researchers, who are based at Texas A&M.

NSC looks inside ‘distracted brain’

Drivers talking on cell phones often enter a state of “inattention blindness” in which they fail to see up to 50 percent of what’s ahead of them, according to a new report from the National Safety Council.

The NSC once again makes the case against driving and using cell phones — including those with hands-free devices — this time backed by about 30 research studies. The NSC estimates that 25 percent of the U.S. crashes in 2008 involved cell phone use.

“Driver distractions have joined alcohol and speeding as leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes,” the NSC said.

The white paper is called “Understanding the Distracted Brain.”

The NSC report maintains there is no such thing as “multitasking,” and that activities such as driving and talking on a phone require the brain to switch back and forth between these tasks. Researchers say there is a “reaction-time switching cost,” in which the brain changes its focus.

With cell phones and driving, “two usually unrelated activities become interrelated when a person is behind the wheel. These tasks compete for our brain’s information processing resources. There are limits to our mental workload.”

This likely explains the University of Utah study that found drunken drivers were better at reacting to traffic events than those who were on cell phones.

The NSC concludes, in part: “We know from other traffic safety issues — impaired driving, safety belts, speeding -– that consistent enforcement of laws is the single most important effective strategy in changing behavior.

“Education, policies, laws and technology must address the prevention of both handheld and hands-free cell phone use by drivers.”

Read the National Safety Council white paper (PDF).

Distracted driving an epidemic, summit told

“Distracted driving is a menace to society,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday as he opened the federal summit on text messaging, cell phoning and other forms of dangerous behaviors behind the wheel.

The government was ready with the statistical evidence: 5,870 people were killed and 515,000 were injured in 2008 in which distracted driving was a factor. Sixteen percent of fatal crashes had the link, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found.

“Distracted driving is an epidemic and it seems to be getting worse every year,” LaHood told his audience of experts on traffic safety.

The summit was inspired by the growing national alarm over the problems of inattentive driving, primarily the potentially deadly practice of text messaging while driving, a practice seen as common among young adults.

One of the opening day’s hot topics was whether hands-free devices really do make cell phone use by drivers safer. Another discussion looked at the the difficulties faced by law officers trying to determine if drivers are texting.

One expert called text messaging while driving “the perfect storm that brings together visual, manual and cognitive demands.”

On Thursday, LaHood plans to unveil the steps his DOT will take to address the distracted driving crisis.

Still, “You can’t legislate behavior,” LaHood said. “Taking personal responsibility for our actions is the key.”

The public is invited to view the summit online and to submit questions for the panelists. View the page for the distracted driving webcast.

Wide support for bans on texting, driving

About 80 percent of Americans favor bans on text messaging while driving, according to a new poll on distracted driving habits. A majority of those polled would like to see laws restricting all types of cell phone use behind the wheel — regardless of whether a hands-free device is employed.

The Nationwide Insurance poll on cell phones and text messaging by drivers, conducted in early August, surveyed more than 1,000 adults nationwide. It was conducted independently, by Harris Interactive.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents backed some controls on cell phone use by drivers.

Three-fourths of those in tech-savvy age groups (21-44) wanted to see bans on text messaging and emailing while driving.

The distracted-driving study found a big drop in those admitting to using cell phones while behind the wheel. In 2008, more than 80 percent of those polled admitted to yakking and motoring. This year, only 49% fessed up. Even though some large states like California have recently outlawed the practice, Nationwide suspected “many drivers are either in denial about their DWD (driving while distracted) habits.”

More than 80% of those who admitted to using cell phones on the road said they wouldn’t change their habit unless laws compelled them to do so. And 18% said they’d drive and phone regardless of what the law said.

While some states restrict handheld cell phone use by younger drivers, the poll found three-quarters of respondents wanted the laws applied equally to all motorists.

Trucks, texting a deadly mix

A study of professional truckers indicates that even pros are severely handicapped while text messaging behind the wheel.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s study found that the truckers were 23 times more likely to get in a wreck while texting. The researchers placed video cameras in the cabs of long-haul trucks over a year and a half period. About 100 truck drivers participated.

In the collisions recorded by the cameras, drivers typically looked at their text messaging devices for five seconds before the accident, the New York Times said in reporting on the Virginia Tech texting study.

The video cameras were focused on drivers’ faces in the seconds before a crash or a near-miss.

Researchers said the danger of crashing while texting applies to all drivers, since they did not find texting behaviors out of the ordinary among the professional truck drivers. The institute is also studying teenagers who text while driving, and the results seem in line with the trucker data.

The estimate that drivers who are texting are 23 times more likely to crash is significantly higher than other studies have reported.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration helped pay for the texting and trucking study.

Virginia Tech and the University of Utah are among the most active research operations looking at various forms of distracted driving.