DWD (Driving While Distracted)

Readers of this blog have heard us carp for some time about the dangers of distracted driving. Now, the federal government is doing something to stop this nuttiness. Effective immediately, drivers of commercial trucks and buses will no longer be allowed to text while driving. Under federal guidelines that U.S. Transportation Department announced today, drivers of big rigs and buses may be subject to civil or criminal penalties of up to $2,750.

Now, if the feds would apply a similar rule to the rest of the drivers on the road, we'd all be much safer.

Upwardly Mobile

As readers of Why We Make Mistakes know, multi-tasking is usually a bad idea. It's an especially bad idea when you are behind the wheel of a car. Talking on a cell phone or texting while you are driving dramatically increases your chances of an accident. But we do it anyway because, among other reasons, we are overconfident about our abilities to multi-task.

For some interesting history about how we got to this point, see the page-one story by Matt Richtel in today's New York Times. As the article notes:

"Long before cellphones became common, industry pioneers were aware of the risks of multitasking behind the wheel. Their hunches have been validated by many scientific studies showing the dangers of talking while driving and, more recently, of texting.

"Despite the mounting evidence, the industry built itself into a $150 billion business in the United States largely by winning over a crucial customer: the driver."

D.W.T.

One of the most common sources of human error is multi-tasking, especially when performed behind the wheel of a car.

D.W.T. or Driving While Texting, is a supremely bad idea; it's been implicated in the crash of a train in Los Angeles and a trolley in Boston.

It is also becoming illegal. In Utah, for instance, texting and emailing while driving are now punishable by a $750 fine and 90 days in jail.

The state has put out a video, which you can see here. There's also a similar, though very graphic, video appearing now in the U.K.

As the Wall Street Journal points out, companies are scrambling to come up with new texting-safety apps that block texts or minimize the distraction they cause.

But you don't need any of these; you could just hang up the phone and drive.

Why It's Dumb to Text and Drive

We've written before about the folly of texting. (See our May 26 blog here.) Now comes even more proof. A new study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute finds that texting while driving doesn't merely double or triple the risk of a crash; it increases the risk 23 times.

Compared with other sources of driver distraction, “texting is in its own universe of risk,” said Rich Hanowski, who oversaw the study at the institute, which is affiliated with Virginia Tech.

For The Non-Believers Among Us

Readers of this blog know that we've been harping for some time on the perils of multi-tasking, especially multi-tasking behind the wheel. If you still think you can text and drive at the same time, maybe this piece in the New York Times will make you think otherwise. There's also an interesting follow-up, which you can find here.

The Folly of Texting

There have been a number of stories in the press lately on the follies of texting while doing almost anything else. One of the more recent involved a Boston trolley crash that injured 20 people. The 24-year-old trolley operator acknowledged he was texting his girlfriend at the time of the crash.

Now comes a story in today's New York Times. It reports that American teenagers sent and received an average if 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008. This worries psychologists and physicians, who say obsessive texting is leading to anxiety, distraction in school and sleep deprivation. All of which is a grand way to make more errors.