Bloomberg: Smartphones Are Killing Americans, But Nobody’s Counting

[China]

Smartphones Are Killing Americans, But Nobody’s Counting

 

Amid a historic spike in U.S. traffic fatalities, federal data on the danger of distracted driving are getting worse.

 

Jennifer Smith doesn’t like the term “accident.” It implies too much chance and too little culpability.

 

A “crash” killed her mother in 2008, she insists, when her car was broadsided by another vehicle while on her way to pick up cat food. The other driver, a 20-year-old college student, ran a red light while talking on his mobile phone, a distraction that he immediately admitted and cited as the catalyst of the fatal event. 

 

“He was remorseful,” Smith, now 43, said. “He never changed his story.”

 

Yet in federal records, the death isn’t attributed to distraction or mobile-phone use. It’s just another line item on the grim annual toll taken by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration [NHTSA]—one of 37,262 that year. Three months later, Smith quit her job as a realtor and formed Stopdistractions.org, a nonprofit lobbying and support group. Her intent was to make the tragic loss of her mother an anomaly.

 

To that end, she has been wildly unsuccessful. Nine years later, the problem of death-by-distraction has gotten much worse.

 

 

Over the past two years, after decades of declining deaths on the road, U.S. traffic fatalities surged by 14.4 percent. In 2016 alone, more than 100 people died every day in or near vehicles in America, the first time the country has passed that grim toll in a decade. Regulators, meanwhile, still have no good idea why crash-related deaths are spiking: People are driving longer distances but not tremendously so; total miles were up just 2.2 percent last year. Collectively, we seemed to be speeding and drinking a little more, but not much more than usual. Together, experts say these upticks don’t explain the surge in road deaths.

 

There are however three big clues, and they don’t rest along the highway. One, as you may have guessed, is the substantial increase in smartphone use by U.S. drivers as they drive. From 2014 to 2016, the share of Americans who owned an iPhone, Android phone, or something comparable rose from 75 percent to 81 percent.

 

The second is the changing way in which Americans use their phones while they drive. These days, we’re pretty much done talking. Texting, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the order of the day—all activities that require far more attention than simply holding a gadget to your ear or responding to a disembodied voice. By 2015, almost 70 percent of Americans were using their phones to share photos and follow news events via social media. In just two additional years, that figure has jumped to 80 percent.

 

Finally, the increase in fatalities has been largely among bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians—all of whom are easier to miss from the driver’s seat than, say, a 4,000-pound SUV—especially if you’re glancing up from your phone rather than concentrating on the road. Last year, 5,987 pedestrians were killed by cars in the U.S., almost 1,100 more than in 2014—that’s a 22 percent increase in just two years.  

 

Click on the link for the full article

[SkinInsite]

I can see people trying to unlock their iPhone x with their face and immediately crashing in to something.

[Rocky21]

Look at the way we as a society have completely and totally cracked down on buzzed driving (jailing folks that have had 2 glasses of wine with dinner) compared to how we have done zippy about texting / smartphone use while driving.  It's baffling. 

[twa]

I thought it all had to be hands free use?

They banned it here in Texas

[Riggo-toni]

On the plus side, this will help expedite the advent of autonomous vehicles.

Jews may not replace all y'all truck drivers....but Elon Musk's fellers sho'nuff will.

[twa]

1 minute ago, Riggo-toni said:

On the plus side, this will help expedite the advent of autonomous vehicles.

Jews may not replace all y'all truck drivers....but Elon Musk's fellers sho'nuff will.

 

On a side note they found that all those sensors and such are quite a battery drain.

[Llevron]

9 minutes ago, twa said:

I thought it all had to be hands free use?

They banned it here in Texas

 

Yea I got two tickets here in MD the first few weeks they made that law. My ass wont even look at my phone now. And if someone calls me when they know im driving they get the ****tiest attitude...like TF you want? Why is this important right now? I dont play around with that shiz no more. 

[Busch1724]

36 minutes ago, Rocky21 said:

Look at the way we as a society have completely and totally cracked down on buzzed driving (jailing folks that have had 2 glasses of wine with dinner) compared to how we have done zippy about texting / smartphone use while driving.  It's baffling. 

 

Every state has passed the laws. The problem is that when an accident happens, how can you prove it was the smartphone distracting the driver? With booze, you get accurate proof virtually right away. The laws are one the books, but they are difficult to enforce unless someone admits smartphone use. 

[Rocky21]

42 minutes ago, Busch1724 said:

 

Every state has passed the laws. The problem is that when an accident happens, how can you prove it was the smartphone distracting the driver? With booze, you get accurate proof virtually right away. The laws are one the books, but they are difficult to enforce unless someone admits smartphone use. 

Although a notorious source of info Wiki says that NO state bans cell phone use for drivers and only 15 ban the use of hand hell cell phone use.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_cell_phone_use_while_driving_in_the_United_States

[Bang]

The law in MD is that you can't use them with hands at all..  but it stops absolutely no one.

 

Every single day i drive over a 100' high bridge that has 1 northbound lane and 1 southbound lane, no median, and jersey walls 6 inches from the white line. 

And every single day i watch people coming at me with their eyes in their lap.

On the bridge.. there's a curve in the bridge as you get down closer to levellng off,,  and a single instant of distraction is all it would take for one of these fools to cross the lines.. and there is NO room for error.

 

I am not nervous at all about driving over bridges, but i am scared every day watching these vehicles barreling down toward me, knowing how many of them are not paying attention. Literally 12 inches separates me from them, and 6 inches separates them from the wall that will send them careening into me.
This is th bridge, and the curve, and an accident that was most likely caused by exactly this.

 

I also remember a thread here on ES about this when the law changed... and how many people it angered, claiming that THEY could do it just fine, and there should not BE any laws, because THEY could do it just fine.

 

****, people. grow up. Behave like you live in a society and get your selfish eyes out of the phone and onto the road. 

 

~Bang

[gbear]

I read an analogy I like about cell phones the other day.  It called smart phones the modern adult pacifiers. We need to get to the point where we grow up, beyond our need for pacifiers. 

[PF Chang]

So many people just sitting there at red lights when they turn green. 

[PleaseBlitz]

23 minutes ago, PF Chang said:

So many people just sitting there at red lights when they turn green. 

 

Yea, sometimes i honk before the light even turns green when I see the person in front of me with their head down.  

 

Self-driving cars are way too late. 

[twa]

59 minutes ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Yea, sometimes i honk before the light even turns green when I see the person in front of me with their head down.  

 

Self-driving cars are way too late. 

 

I have to get my naps in when I can.

I appreciate the wakeup calls though.

[Busch1724]

1 hour ago, PF Chang said:

So many people just sitting there at red lights when they turn green. 

 

You should have watched this past Sunday's episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. 

[daveakl]

1 hour ago, PleaseBlitz said:

 

Yea, sometimes i honk before the light even turns green when I see the person in front of me with their head down.  

We are just praying for you. 

[Busch1724]

1 hour ago, Rocky21 said:

Although a notorious source of info Wiki says that NO state bans cell phone use for drivers and only 15 ban the use of hand hell cell phone use.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_cell_phone_use_while_driving_in_the_United_States

 

Sorry, was under the impression all states had some form of law on the books. Had a workshop this past summer and that was something that came up and was just working from that workshop. 

[Mr. Sinister]

Yeah its getting worse. Honestly i don't see how the cat is put back in the bag. Every company is in a technological arms race, and across the spectrum, it seems like no one could give a damn about potential issues that could result from it. 

 

These are no longer phones. They are a 5th limb. Everything we do is tied to that little basterd, so naturally, people simply will not put it down, even if their lives and the lives of others depend on it. 

 

I've long felt that as humans, we all have to have a serious discussion about where the tech/computer industry is headed, because I just don't think enough people are ready to handle it responsibly. Texting/talking on the phone while driving is just one of the many problems I see as a result of it

[Pick6]

The new iOS has a great do not disturb driving feature. It automatically senses the car moving and you won't receive text or calls. It works great. The only problem is on a treadmill or in a golf cart the feature can activate as well.

[Destino]

4 hours ago, PF Chang said:

So many people just sitting there at red lights when they turn green. 

 

That reminds me of a situation that happened recently.  I was out with my folks and we were behind a girl at a left turn signal in the Tyson's area.  She was on her phone.   Light turned green and she was just sitting there head down.  My father honked, but she didn't notice.  So he gave a second polite quick honk of the horn, but by the time her head came up it was red again.  All normal to that point, just another day in traffic with the idiots.

 

But this idiot was the angry kind.  She got out of the car and started screaming at us.  She was yelling things like "are you blind the light is ****ing red!"  It was so ridiculous that all we could do was laugh.  

[Xameil]

2 hours ago, Pick6 said:

The new iOS has a great do not disturb driving feature. It automatically senses the car moving and you won't receive text or calls. It works great. The only problem is on a treadmill or in a golf cart the feature can activate as well.

Or if your a passenger I would bet...

There's probably a reason no other company has released some thing like that.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

You can just turn to off if you are a passenger 

[Xameil]

2 hours ago, Momma There Goes That Man said:

You can just turn to off if you are a passenger 

So that means you can just turn it off if you are the driver, or in a golf cart or on a treadmill...lol

[elkabong82]

Smart phones are killing education too.

 

It's a constant battle in the classroom to get teens off their phones. No matter how many calls you make to many of their parents about bad grades due to the student always on the phone, no matter how many calls principals make for discipline, parents just let their kids keep having them or at best will take it away for 1 week, 2 max. 

 

I can only imagine how many of them are staring at the screen while driving also. 

 

It's an addiction.

[Corcaigh]

36 minutes ago, Xameil said:

So that means you can just turn it off if you are the driver, or in a golf cart or on a treadmill...lol

 

Waze, for example asks you if you are a passenger if you open it when the car is moving. They should ask you to complete a complex puzzle, not a simple Yes/No prompt.