October 8, 2009

Krystal Kid says :

80% percent of all rear end collisions (the most frequent vehicle accident) are caused by driver inattention, following too closely, external distraction (talking on cell phones, shaving, applying makeup, fiddling with the radio or CD player, kids, texting, etc.) and poor judgement. There is nothing you can do to avoid a rear end collision so I got one of these sparebumper.com

Sam Glotz says :

I enjoyed the program on driving while distracted. The program focused entirely on reaction time and missed another area of vital importance which has a severe impact on driving when one hand is occupied: ability to maneuver in emergincy situations. It would be interesting to see the results of a similar study of one hand vs two hand driving.

Hugh says :

I personlly know two people who have permanent brain damage from being rear-ended by drivers trying to dial cell phones. One of them is my sister, who was a highly trained nurse, and who now can barely cope with being up and about for an hour a day. The numbers of these permanently disabled casualties resulting from the distraction of cell phone use by drivers is growing, and will cost us all hugely. Driving a vehicle is, in itself, a formidable responsibility which requires all our attention on the road and on the moving objects such as cars, pedestrians, motorcyles, buses, and bicycles darting about everywhere. The use of communications devices while driving should be outlawed, period.

Greta Mendes says :

I am the sister of the man profiled in the show. I was SHOCKED to see that driving under the influence is less risky (percentage wise) than driving while talking/texting. As parents we teach our children not to drink and drive, now we need to expand that to include phones and texting. The REAL issue is, we can control what WE as drivers do, we simply can't control what the other drivers/texters/drinkers/cell phone users are doing. We simply need to implement the same laws that Utah has, NO cell phone use in any manner while driving. Period, no exceptions, our country has forgotten how precious and precarious life is, a $20.00 fine equates to lunch out. It really needs to be addessed by our lawmakers with SERIOUSNESS and not just some back page agenda.
Also, Thank you so much to the crew and Producer and Assistant Producer, you guys did a great job and gave my brother some satisfaction spreading his important message, HANG UP AND DRIVE!

Khalid says :

During todays' newshour, there was a segment on the safety of driving while using cell phone. It showed your reporter in a simulation. The creator of the safe drivig simulator, Enrique was later shown driving his fancy convertible car with the top down. I believe that while driving, he was not wearing his seat belt. The producer of the show should check it out. If so, he must be reminded of wearing seat belt as another safety measure.

Mitch says :

I agree that all communication devices should be outlawed while driving.

But the show did not ask the obvious follow up question: Is there any difference in talking on a cell phone verses talking to a passenger in the car?

Apparently, the distraction effect is the same as with a cell phone (See the Goverment Report, Experimental Data Section A(5), page 4, paragraph 6). It is just that the cell phone allows for a giant increase in these conversations to take place.

Other follow up questions would be:

(1) what is the effect of listening to the radio or a recorded book on driver concentration?

(2) what is the effect of practicing a foreign language on driver concentration?

How many people have been killed or crippled due to the later distractions?

Jim Borgardt says :

This is a sad commentary on your reportage. Your reporter says that 138000 citations have been written (since the passing of the law?). So how many drivers are on the road each DAY in California? And how many of those are chatting on their cells? If your reporter had just glanced around (without the CHP in tow), she would have seen hundreds on their cells in just the time it took to air her piece. Why? Because the law is not being enforced, and thats likely political. Law enforcement is prioritized, and cell phone use is very low on the law enforcement priority list. I'd be curious to know how many cell use tickets (or warnings) this CHP officer writes when he doesn't have a journalist ride-along.