A federal appeals court has cast a dubious eye on Indiana's texting & driving law. Ruling in the case of a suspected drug trafficker pulled over for texting, the court found that "the most plausible inference from seeing a driver fiddling with his cell phone is that he is not texting" -- citing a list of other activities possible on smartphones. In the decision dated Feb. 18, the court found: "No fact perceptible to a police officer glancing into a moving car and observing the driver using a cell phone would enable the officer to determine whether it was a permitted or a forbidden … [Read more...]
AAA: Driver use of cell phones widespread
February 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
About 70 percent of U.S. drivers confess to recently using a cell phone while behind the wheel, a new survey suggests. About 1 in 3 of drivers say they use the cell phones "fairly often or regularly," according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The group cited a "culture of indifference" toward unsafe driving behaviors. Just over 42 percent of the drivers self-reported reading a text or email while driving within the past 30 days. Nearly 1 in 3 admitted to typing or sending a text or email, the AAA report says. An overwhelming number of the drivers said, nonetheless, that … [Read more...]
Nine states flagged for texting laws
January 28, 2016 by 2 Comments
An annual survey of highway safety laws gigs nine states for having ineffective distracted driving laws. Six of those receive overall "red" ratings for anemic safety laws. A majority of the states gigged as falling "dangerously behind in adoption of key safety laws" were lacking texting and driving laws with full enforcement. Those "red" states are Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Florida. "People are needlessly dying on our streets and roads while state elected leaders are needlessly delaying enactment of lifesaving laws," group President Jacqueline Gillan … [Read more...]
Indiana license plate: ‘Put the Phone Down’
January 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
We've all seen the bumper stickers that urge motorists to get off the cell phone and drive. Now there's something a bit more official. Indiana now has a sponsored license plate with the bold message: "Put the Phone Down." The state gives $25 of the $40 cost to the Indiana Motor Truck Association, which vows to devote 100 percent of its share to distracted driving education programs such as the Save a Life Tour. The vanity plate was unveiled Jan. 14 by the truckers group, the office of the state attorney general, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the state DOT. The truckers group … [Read more...]
NTSB posts distraction as ‘Most Wanted’
January 14, 2016 by 1 Comment
The NTSB has unveiled its "Most Wanted List" of changes in 2016 to save lives and reduce transportation accidents. Not surprisingly, "deadly distractions" get major play. "It will take a cultural change for drivers to understand that their safety depends on disconnecting from deadly distractions," the National Transportation Safety Board says in its breakout on the issue. The NTSB, which mostly investigates public transportation crashes, says it found portable electronic device distraction as a cause or contributing factor in 11 accidents that killed 50 people and injured 259. In … [Read more...]
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