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 … [Read more...]

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. … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]