A Virginia Tech Transport Institute study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions. Even scarier is that this study was made of long-haul truck drivers whose collision risk went up 23 times while texting.
The study also measured the amount of time a driver’s eyes were off the road. In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices. That’s enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which has the mission of improving safety in trucks and buses financed the study. The director of the study said the study’s message was clear: “You should never texting while driving. It should be illegal.”
Thirty-six states do not ban texting while driving; 14 do, including Alaska, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. One difficulty in measuring crashes caused by texting drivers and by drivers talking on phones is that many police agencies do not collect this data. Texting is a relatively new phenomenon but its popularity has soared. In December, phone users in the United States sent 110 billion messages, a tenfold increase in just three years, according to the cellular phone industry’s trade group, CTIA.
A new poll shows that many drivers know the risks of texting while driving — and do it anyway. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety plans on Tuesday to publish polling data that show that 87 percent of people consider drivers texting or e-mailing to pose a “very serious” safety threat which is roughly equal to the 90 percent who consider drunken drivers a threat. Hopefully the next driver I meet on the highway is not texting or I have a significantly increased chance of becoming involved in a serious auto crash.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
