Texting while driving?
Don't let this happen to you!
Please sign our SafeTexting Pledge
The Safe Texting Campaign's mission is to reduce/stop distracted driving through education and technology. Sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers – so many have been lost, injured or forever devastated by accidents resulting from texting and cell phone use while driving. Together we can stop this worldwide distracted driving crisis and stop it today!
Teen drivers
Research shows that teen drivers, ages 16-19, are easily distracted and take more unnecessary risks than mature experienced drivers. Teenage overconfidence encourages reckless activities including speeding, lane cross-overs, red light running and tailgating when driving solo or with their peers. This means teenage drivers are dangerous enough without adding a cell phone and texting into the equation. Teens are four times more likely to get into a car accident while talking or texting. Our application will stop this behavior by controlling incoming and outgoing calls, and texting while driving.
The problem goes beyond teens
The SafeTexting Campaign hands out distracted driving literature at community events. We recently participated in the Ocoee FL, Founders Day Festival. I handed literature to a young man, he had his wife and two children with him. We talked about Safe Texting, "I'm sure you don't text and drive, but I am sure you know someone who dose..." After they walked away, his son (about age 10) ran back to me and said "Thanks for giving that to my dad, he really needs to know it's bad to text and drive".
We are parents who are alarmed with the increased amount of technology over common-sense. We're concerned about distracted driving, safety, security and preserving parental rights. No parent should outlive their child or receive a devastating phone call over something as pointless as an irresponsible text message. SafeTexting Campaign reduces texting and driving which gives a us peace of mind and allows teenagers to safely continue enjoying their growing independence. We must set the standard for safe positive behavior and we must stop texting and driving. Demands on our time can result in a challenging balance, but safety must never be sacrificed. Stop the madness, get the application for your phone. Set an example and to show others that safety is always a high priority, do not text and drive.
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The No. 1 source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device (Virginia Tech/NHTSA)
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Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves (NHTSA, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
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Distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) extends a driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent (University of Utah)
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10% of drivers aged 16 to 24 years old are on their phone at any one time
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Driving while distracted is a factor in 25% of police reported crashes and cost society about $230 billion a year
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Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%
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Of all cell phone related tasks - including talking, dialing, or reaching for the phone - texting while driving is the most dangerous.
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A car driver dialing a cell phone is 2.8 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-distracted driver. (Virginia Tech)
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A driver reaching for a cell phone or any other electronic device is 1.4 times more likely to experience a car crash.
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A car driver talking on their phone is 1.3 times more likely to get into an accident.
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For every 6 seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks. (Virginia Tech)
Cell phone usage while driving is far too common and very dangerous. Some state and local government agencies have made the use of a cell phone while driving illegal. In some areas restrictions are directed to minors and new license holders. Other jurisdictions have enacted laws to ban handheld use, but allow the usage of a hands free devices.
Text messaging alone caused more than 16,000 deaths in car accidents from 2001 to 2007. According to new U.S. government research, deaths related to cell phones and texting while driving rose 28 percent in just three years, from 4,572 in 2005 to 5,870 in 2008
A 2003 study by the psychology department at the University of Utah measured response time, following distance, and driving speed of a control group, subjects at the legal blood alcohol level of 0.08%, and subjects involved in cell phone conversations. “After controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, the study concluded that cell phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers”
Twenty to fifty percent of all reported accidents are related to driver inattention. Driver distraction is a sub-category of inattention, which is estimated to be a contributing factor in eight to thirteen percent of all crashes.
Many states have banned texting on cell phones while driving. Illinois was the 17th state to enforce the ban. Accidents involving drivers being distracted by talking on a cell phone have begun to be prosecuted as negligence similar to driving while intoxicated. In some jurisdictions law enforcement agencies are routinely requesting cell phone records for all injury related traffic accidents.
It is unclear how effective texting while driving laws are. While the laws have the best intention, they may inadvertently promote a very dangerous behavior. Some drivers who previously held their cell phone near the top of the steering wheel while texting, are now holding the cell phone in their lap. While these drivers hide the phone from law enforcement, they are setting themselves up for disaster. Now they are taking their eyes completely off the road for up to 6 seconds at a time. Prior to the new laws, they may have had some benefit from peripheral vision.
Contrary to popular belief hands free cellular devices are not safer than using a hand held cell phones. The cognitive workload involved in holding a conversation, not the use of hands, causes the increased risk. “Verbal acquisition tasks were innocuous compared with production tasks, and complex conversations, whether by phone or with a passenger, are dangerous for road safety.” Source
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