It’s obvious that smartphones and driving are a dangerous combination. At this point, it should be obvious that ever-more-drastic laws banning cell phone use while driving have been ineffective, other than as another revenue-producing tool for law enforcement. A new study of teen drivers offers some insight into why.
Experts examined in-car video of 1,700 crashes involving teen-age drivers and found that distraction was a factor in 6 out of 10 moderate to serious crashes. What kind of distraction? Here’s the breakdown:
- Interacting with one or more passengers: 15 percent
- Cell phone use: 12 percent
- Looking at something in the vehicle: 10 percent
- Looking at something outside the vehicle: 9 percent
- Singing/moving to music: 8 percent
- Grooming: 6 percent
- Reaching for an object: 6 percent
(The study was conducted by AAA using videos provided by Lytx, which provides in-car camera technology. Click to see more on the study.)
Distracted driving is a problem. We all know that we should keep our eyes on the road at all times, as this prevents accidents from happening. No one wants to be responsible for any accident, no matter whether it is minor or serious. If you or anyone you know has recently been involved in a road accident due to a distracted driver, but are not sure what to do after seeking medical attention, it may be worth checking out sites similar to https://philly-injury-law.com/, in the hopes of speaking to an injury attorney. You may not have thought about going down this route, but seeing as they’d have your best interest at heart, knowing that you have someone on your side could make this situation a lot easier to deal with.
Anyway, it’s haunting to think that a majority of bad accidents could have been prevented by better focus. But the numbers here don’t lie: Cell phone use is only a part of the problem, and it’s not the bulk of it, at least among teen crashes. Singing along to music was almost as common a cause of the crashes studied. Looking around was a more common cause. Reaching for something and putting on makeup, together, caused more crashes than cell phone use. And of course, the distraction of other passengers was the most serious problem (which is why some states don’t let young drivers transport others).
One critical element of this study: The cameras were quite out in the open. The drivers all knew they were being watched. Still, they engaged in all these risky behaviors. That just shows how irresistible and powerful the lure of distractions are.
Sadly, it’s fairly impossible to legislate attention. So most states have, with good intention, tried to help to bypass all manner of cell phone use bans. Here’s the problem. In some states, it’s now strictly speaking illegal to use GPS devices. In other states, judges have ruled that smartphone use is legal while talking on a cell phone is not. The laws are incredibly hard to enforce, which means they are ineffective.
I use my smartphone as a radio often. While I can pick the station before I put the car in gear and drive, I worry that doing so might be illegal in some jurisdictions. Yet, stand on any street corner in America, watch cars pass by, and I’ll bet you see up to one-quarter of drivers playing with their phones. And, as I’ve mentioned, there’s no shortage of studies showing cell phone bans don’t actually reduce accidents.
So what should be done? Most important: We all need to recognize distraction is the problem. I’ve written a lot about the seduction of multi-tasking in The Restless Project, and how most people wildly overestimate their skills at doing two things at once. The vast majority of people, doing the vast majority of tasks, can only focus on one thing at a time. Today’s kids are assaulted by multi-tasking temptations as they grow up. We can’t expect them to suddenly master the art of focus at 16 if they’ve been talking to people while playing video games and texting through their early years.
We shouldn’t be picking on kids, of course. Distraction is a problem for all of us, menaced as we are by the 45 different ways any of us can be interrupted during the day.
I’d like to see police use a wide, wide berth of discretion while enforcing cell phone laws. My suspicion is that only those who are dumb about it get caught – folks who plant their smartphone on top of the steering wheel while sitting at a traffic light next to a cop. “Sneaky” cell phone users are actually a bigger risk, as they keep their phones down low, where a cop can’t spot it, and where they have to look far down and away from the windshield. I wouldn’t want any of these bans repealed, but I would like to know that tickets are given out only in episodes of real distracted driving. (Of course, I’d be all for some stern warnings). Americans often don’t like to hear this, but one-size-fits-all laws end up being tyrannical. There is a difference between typing out an email while driving down on a busy city street and setting a GPS destination on an empty highway.
The real solution to the smartphone problem will come from technology. Apple, Google, and the rest of you — you got us into this mess, you’re going to have to get us out of this. Car-safe user interfaces will be essential, allowing drivers to respond with quick “running late” texts without taking their hands off the wheel or their eyes off the road, and perhaps limiting use of more complex functions while driving.
My main concern is that we have become distracted and we’re focusing on the wrong problem. Consider the chart above again. Cell phone use is only 20 percent of the distracted driving problem. Like so many problems of our time, the issue is attention. Let’s focus on that.
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