Texting Accidents

This video is one that covers the world of texting, and the accidents that may occur while texting is distracting you. One girl fell 6 feet down into a manhole cover while another woman walked directly into a pole. The point of this interview and article is to show how distracting texting can really be, even when committing a harmless act such as walking. Add a 5 thousand pound vehicle into the mix, driving at 70 miles an hour and you have a real recipe for danger. People can walk into traffic, miss a step on the staircase, or run into the rear end of another vehicle all because their eyes and their reaction time was distracted by an incoming or outgoing message. I look forward to my presentation on Tuesday, and I look forward to gathering and organizing all of the materials that I have studied this entire semester. I feel like I can truly construct a sound argument for how dangerous texting can be, and for how damaging it has been to society in other aspects.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/15/texting-accidents-running_n_232672.html

video:

Is Any Message That Important?

http://aboutus.vzw.com/wirelessissues/DTAD%20TV%20Ad.mov

Trolley Texting

Trolley Texting

This past spring, a trolley conductor in Boston was responsible for a trolley crash in which 49 people were taken to the hospital. One green rail trolley crashed into the rear-end of another causing both trolleys to derail. In what may have seemed like an ordinary mis-scheduling of trolleys, further investigation pointed to the cell phone records of one of the conductors. Upon reviewing his cell phone records, investigators concluded that he had been texting his girlfriend upon impact of the two trolleys.

This is just another classic case of what can happen when a person is operating machinery while distracted. How many cases have to happen like this before people learn, or before lawmakers start to imopose restrictions on texting while driving. What's next? Must we worry about a pilot landing a 747 while sending a text message? Is any text message that important and dire that it must be sent at that exact moment in time?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/05/ems_49_taken_to.html

Texting Leads to Tragic End for Train and Passengers

In mid-September of this year, a train collision in Washington D.C killed 26 people and left dozens of others injured. You may ask, how can something like this happen in this day and age? Aren't the trains run so methodically and mechanically that a crash or collision would be impossible? Well, it turns out that the trains on the railroad are controlled and coordinated by human conductors much more than we may think. Conductors have the responsibility of not only stopping and starting the train from a scheduled stop, but have the responsibility of making sure that trains run on the correct track and obviously do not cross paths with another train.

The problem comes in when these, although experienced, conductors become distracted with other immensely important, life or death tasks... for example texting. The conductor who murdered 26 people had run a stop signal because he was "allegedly" texting, with his eyes completely removed from the tracks, while driving the train. The cause of the deadliest train crash in 16 years has come from a method of communication that had not even existed when the last crash occurred.

CBS Station KCAL correspondent Kristine Lazar reported exclusively that one minute before the crash, a teenager received a text message on his cell phone from the engineer, whom friends identified as Robert Sanchez. It is clear that whether or not the conductor had received or sent a text at the moment of impact, what is a fact is that he was distracted moments before.. at the time when he could have seen the stop signal or pulled the emergency break.. or even called the dispatcher to re-route his train or the other train.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/15/national/main4449292.shtml

MTA Bus Driver Hits FIT Student

An MTA bus driver recently struck and killed a 22 year old FIT student from Westchester. Witnesses say that the young man was sprinting through an intersection and did not make it accross in time.

While this may be the complete story, we have to wonder if the driver was completely focused on the road. He has a history of distraction. He had been suspended a few weeks ago for texting, and updating his facebook page while driving. It is against the law for bus operators to use electronic devices and drive, so he was suspended and has been going to saftey classes. While his phone was checked at the scene and there was no recent usage of the phone, his workers papers were already in the process for him to be fired.

It is crazy to think that even an MTA bus driver, a professional driver, is abscent minded enough to be text messaging while driving a 40 foot long tank filled with innocent riders. I can think of plenty of times walking through the Bronx where I stepped off the curb with an MTA bus barreling down the bus lane. To think that maybe the driver is texting, and may potentialy mow me down is an awful thought. It'll make me think twice or maybe three times about whether or not the driver is even paying attention.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/11/09/2009-11-09_driver_flunked_text_had_just_returned_to_bus_job_when_vehicle_killed_student.html

Depressing Truth

This post is not from an article, but from a video. The video I found has been circulating on the internet and has been a topic of discussion for people from many walks of life including my parents. My mother actually brought the video to my attention, and I found it on the internet. To give credit where it is due, a British High School is responsible for the video and they made it while trying to improve awareness concerning the dangers of texting while operating a motor vehicle. I plan on using this video as part of my presentation, and I also feel that it brings to life the severity and the dangerous implications that texting and driving bring about. While the video may be depressing, I believe it is useful in my presentation.

As a result, I feel it is as valuable as an article and in fact more thoroughly helps to show that an accident can happen at any time... to anyone. Like I've talked about before, in my opinion, the most significant reason for the continuation of texting and driving is the age old belief that "it will not happen to me". Well, enjoy.

watch

A Quick Question

Any ideas on the severity of the punishment for texting and driving?

Driven to Distraction

The topic of this article is "Driven to Distraction- Britain Sets Tough New Laws for Texting While Driving". As you can imagine by simply reading the title of the article, this article describes a recent death in Britain, and the means of punishment that are being taken as a result.

Recently, a 24 year old woman was stopped on the side of the road after her car had suddenly broken down. Momentarily parked on the shoulder lane, the rear end of her vehicle was slammed into by another automobile, this one driven by a 22 year old woman. As stated in the article, many times this would be seen as a tragic accident and would be dismissed with a few sad shakes of the head and another tragic funeral. However, nowadays in Britain, accidents are examined and inspected in a more detailed way. The young woman whose vehicle was used as a homocidal weapon... well... she was carrying a cell-phone... and that cell phone had a recent history of a dozen or so text messages, the most recent coming in (but never opened) seconds before the crash. Before.. a few sad head nods. Now.. 21 months in maximum security prison.

According to The New York Times, the British government regard "prolonged texting as a serious aggravating factor in “death by dangerous driving” — just like drinking — and generally recommend four to seven years in prison". Texting while driving is attacked fiercely in Britain, and is seen not as bad judgement but as a heinous crime. It is appropriately placed on the same level of drinking and driving, driving while high on drugs, or racing another vehicle.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/technology/02texting.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&ref=technology

Virtual Death

"Several studies have shown that distractions while driving, such as using cell phones or texting, can be dangerous. New research confirms these findings among teens".

A virtual test was done for 21 teenage drivers. This test is similar to the experiment I plan on doing myself, however, I'm sure that this test is a bit more efficient because of the technology that was used. The virtual test was conducted in a driving simulator, and had 21 teens drive through a virtual test course. During the course, they were given distracting tasks such as searching through an mp3 player and such as using the texting features of a cell phone. "Similar studies have found that adults who talk on cell phones while driving in simulators perform as dismally as drunken study particpants".

Instead of summarizing the article, I will use the last paragraph because it acts as a very useful article summary in itself. "What this study demonstrates is that not only does your speed go up and down, you're swinging wide left and right," said Dr. Donald Lewis, of the Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, Va.. "You're a hazardous driver, to yourself and everybody else."

http://www.livescience.com/health/090504-texting-driving.html

Where to Draw the Line?

Like we've seen before, the government is trying to force individual states to place a ban on using cell phone devices (or the like) to text message. If they follow through with the ban, they will continue to receive money to fix, clean, and rebuild federal highways. The situation gets a bit slippery when determining what exactly to ban?

Now obviously the standard cell phone will be banned, and its text messaging features banished. Exiled along with the trusty cell phone is the blackberry, iPhone, and all touch screen type devices. The idea is to minimize the amount of "distracted-driving" that Americans are doing. While driving at a high speed on a highway, just taking your eyes off the road for a few seconds can cause approx. 100 yards of blind driving.

Distracted driving is not simply texting however, it includes any activity that causes you to take your eyes off the road. That is essentially where this article comes into play. Truckers have small computers inside their cabs that help them keep on schedule, find their next location, and keep close contact with dispatchers. The drivers claim that the computer is not distracting, but "After videotaping truckers behind the wheel, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that those who used on-board computers faced a 10 times greater risk of crashing, nearly crashing or wandering from their lane than truckers who did not use those devices."

This distracted driving is not to set up the nights social events, but rather to keep on schedule and make a living. If drivers pulled over to use their computer every time they needed to, they would lose approximately 1/4 of their time on the road. My question to you... When lives are at risk, does it make a difference if the distracted driving is to make a dinner date or to make a living??

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/technology/28truckers.html?_r=1

Possibly the Answer??

A new technology is being worked on that could possibly save many lives and many auto-accidents. The technology is a system that can both send messages to the outbox and read messages from the inbox aloud. It is a program that links to your cellphone, and will actually read you incoming messages and will type messages based on your voice. It seems like a voicemail type program, but smarter because it does not just record and store messages.. it reads, writes, talks, and sends messages.

The company jumping on the genious idea is called ATX, a company that already provides technology for some of the leaders in the auto industry such as Lexus, Mercedes Benz, and Rolls Royce. The next thing I wonder is how much will a program like this cost? And will people be willing to spend the money? Most people have that "it will never happen to me attitude", and I cannot see why an auto accident caused by texting would be any different. I'm interested to see what the future will bring.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10296369-48.html

Dangers of Driving and Texting

This is yet another article about the dangers of texting and driving, but there are many more statistics and information that most other articles. I am going to do my project on the phenomena that is texting and driving, and will find articles for the next few weeks pertaining to this topic. Hope I don't bore you too much with the repetitive articles... Something interesting that I found was that insurance companies are now researching phone company records so that they can determine if their insured was texting while the accident occurred. This is important because they will drop your claim and make you pay for the damages if they find you to be texting and driving at the time of your accident.

A new system is being developed and will be on shelves soon. This system can read all emails, text messages...etc and acts like a mobile secretary for your vehicle in case your business on the phone is too important to wait until parked.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

-Experts say driving while texting is leading factor in accidents

-Four states actively attempting to ban driving while texting

-Studies show 46 percent of drivers ages 16 to 17 admit to texting while driving

-Electronic Virtual Assistant lets you dictate text message responses

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/11/14/aa.texting.while.driving/index.html

Tragic Texting

Legislation was recenty proposed by Senator Chuck Schumer that would place a ban on text-messaging while behind the wheel. We have all heard the tragic stories of texting and driving, and the life altering (and sometimes ending) consequences that this seemingly harmless act can cause. While 14 states have already enabled similar proposals to be accepted, not all 50 states have incorporated the proposal.
As a means of motivation for these states to indoctrinate the ban, federal fincancing for highways would eventually be cut by 25% for the states who do not comply. In response, and in order to restore itself on top of the automaker industry, Ford has publicly stated that they agree with the proposal and that they back it. While most of the article is centered around Ford Motor Company and what heroes they are for backing the bill, I think we have a larger issue on our hands. I do not understand how only 14 out of 50 states have complied with this ban.

In my experienced opinion on the matter (as someone who has seen first hand and second hand how distracting and dangerous texting while driving is), I would go as far as to make the claim that texting and while driving is as dangerous as drinking while driving. While drinking and driving your reaction time may be slowed down, your depth perception may be miscalculated, and your motor skills will be below your normal skill level. HOWEVER.. if you are not even looking at the road, and instead have your eyes glued to a small telephone screen, your reaction time, depth perception, and motor skills are dwarfed by those of EVEN A DRUNK PERSON. In fact, your skill set is zero, zilch, nada... because you are not even driving the car. A 3500 pound steel machine is being driven at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour by a human who might as well have his or her eyes closed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/business/11ford.html?_r=1

Trashing some Technology

The article.. which turned out to be more of a slideshow with captions.. was another fine product of The New York Times Technology section. The premise of the article was to examine how robotic technology in Japan has become less useful in the recent months. Being that Japan is taking part in the "deepest recession in more than a generation", the exporting bohemeth has found that much of its robots have been idles or sent back to their manufacturers as a result of limited production in the manufacturing industry. Aside from robots with the primary function of work, other robots (used for entertainment or even as pets in some cases) have also been scrapped as their price tags seem rediculous in the current economic state.

This article is interesting to me because it helps to see how the current economic state of the United States has affected the entire globe. Giant robots that help to build Nissan automobiles in Japan are being returned, or put into the attic simply because the market for new cars in the United States is down from previous years. It's amazing to see how various countries and regions of the world are affected so greatly as a result of this growing gobal economy that we live in today.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/13/business/20090713-robots-ss_index.html

First Blog

Hola!! Welcome to my first blog! From what I understand, the entire purpose of my blogging is to talk about various advances and components of technology and to examine their impact on society. Well, for the first blog I have a great article that pertains to new technology and its positive influence on society. I read a New York Times article that was composed of interviews of firefighters and other rescue personnel who respond to accidents. Recently, advanced high-strength steel has been incorporated into car manufacturing as opposed to a much weaker type of steel. The high-strength steel is mainly in door pillars and roof rails, making the car so strong that it is nearly impossible to cut through, even with high powered cutting tools such as the jaws of life. While this could slow down the rescue process of an injured victim in certain cases, I would be interested to find out how many lives it has and will continue to save in "rollover" type accidents. In my opinion, technology prevails in this case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/science/15steelside.html