Multi-tasking Behind the Wheel - We All Do It! Let's Not!

Multi-tasking While Driving is Risky Behavior
Photo by Stewart McCoy

We live in the age of Multi-tasking.

For instance, we can watch TV, eat snacks, work on our laptops, chat online, talk on the phone and open our snail mail pretty much all at the same time. Generally, that’s not too risky as long as we are sitting on the sofa at home.

But, carry that same impulse to multi-task into the driver’s seat of a car, and, frankly, we’re asking for trouble.

Statistics show trouble finds us!

Yet, we all do it. Drive plus: eat, talk on the phone, text, follow directions from a GPS, comb our hair, put on makeup, shrug out of a jacket or sweater, or put one on (an art in itself while wearing a seat belt), read a paper or written directions, or check a map, load a video for the kids in the backseat, etc. etc.

There were more than 33,000 highway deaths in 2009 in the U.S. alone. Drunk driving is the cause of a sizable percentage of that, and let’s face it, it is easy to prove after the fact with an autopsy.

Proving an accident was caused by a distracted driver is a lot harder.

But common sense dictates that baring mechanical failure of the car or driver error – such as speeding on a curve on a rain-slicked road – pretty much every other accident could be chalked up to driving distracted –in other words, day dreaming or multi-tasking.

It’s really up to each one of us to decide whether we want to be part of the problem or part of the solution, i.e., an alert driver who can avoid other people’s accidents.

Laws can help, but they have to be crafted properly and they have to be enforceable.

A recent study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) found that automobile accident rates rose slightly in states that passed laws banning texting while driving - one of America's favorite multi-tasking activities. See full press release at:

http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr092810.html

I question one of the statements in this press release. (It’s highlighted in bold italic type.) See if you agree.

Here is the excerpt:

"Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted. It's an indication that texting bans might even increase the risk of texting for drivers who continue to do so despite the laws," says Adrian Lund, president of both HLDI and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Noncompliance is a likely reason texting bans aren't reducing crashes. Survey results indicate that many drivers, especially younger ones, shrug off these bans. Among 18-24 year-olds, the group most likely to text, 45 percent reported doing so anyway in states that bar all drivers from texting. This is just shy of the 48 percent of drivers who reported texting in states without bans. Many respondents who knew it was illegal to text said they didn't think police were strongly enforcing the bans.

"But this doesn't explain why crashes increased after texting bans," Lund points out. "If drivers were disregarding the bans, then the crash patterns should have remained steady. So clearly drivers did respond to the bans somehow, and what they might have been doing was moving their phones down and out of sight when they texted, in recognition that what they were doing was illegal. This could exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers' eyes further from the road and for a longer time."

Using a driving simulator, researchers at the University of Glasgow found a sharp decrease in crash likelihood when participants switched from head-down to head-up displays. This suggests that it might be more hazardous for a driver to text from a device that's hidden from view on the lap or vehicle seat.

Texting in general is on the increase. Wireless phone subscriptions numbered 286 million as of December 2009, up 47 percent from 194 million in June 2005. Text messaging is increasing, too. It went up by about 60 percent in 1 year alone, from 1 trillion messages in 2008 to 1.6 trillion in 2009.

The District of Columbia was the first US jurisdiction to ban all motorists from texting. This was in 2004, and since then 30 states have followed suit. Nearly half of these bans have been enacted in 2010.

End of excerpt.

Before we jump to the conclusion that the texting ban actually increased accidents, we have to ask ourselves:

Given the rise in the number of people texting while driving, could it be that the bans may still have slowed the rate of increase in traffic accidents below what it might have been without the new law?

In other words, could it be that the reductions in the number of accidents that the ban has achieved are hidden by the fact that so many more people are texting and having accidents?

So, before we say the laws are increasing accidents, we may need further study.

More Technology, Please!

Maybe, in this age of Multi-tasking, what we need is more technology – not less.

What we really need is a car we can program to get us safely to our destination, without driver involvement at all, once we hit the start button:

I, for one, would certainly pay a premium for:

An intelligent, programmable car that would maintain a safe distance from all other moving vehicles, that would automatically merge safely onto any highway and maintain a safe speed, treat other drivers with courtesy and yield when appropriate, and get the driver and passengers to their destination, safely, on time and with fuel economy – all this while allowing the driver to multi-task as if he or she were sitting on the sofa at home.

Detroit, are you listening?

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