| Hear Ye, Hear Ye The experts have voted. Seems most of us drive, with brains overloaded! |
| <> Distracted Driving |
| Concerns over distracted driving date back half a century, when radios were first installed as standard equipment in cars! Believe it or not, the motion of wiper blades was also a major distraction according to old reports! (And we thought Grandma had it easy!) So please remember that it’s not just the cell phone that can cause your distraction, although we are learning day-by-day that cell phone use may be....THE MOTHER OF ALL DISTRACTIONS! |
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| Safety is a family affair: LINKS ____________ |
| <> All Shapes All Sizes |
| More For Mom |
| “Americans Redefine Reckless Driving Habits,” “Study Identifies Connection Between Distracted Drivers and Crashes.” |
| Reports appear more and more frequently on TV, in papers, magazine and website news reports. Distracted driving is finally being recognized for the real danger is that it is. |
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| These days you can find plenty of articles with banner headlines such as: |
| According to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, which has organized a campaign encouraging responsible use of new vehicle technologies, distracted drivers cause at least 4,000 accidents a day and perhaps as many as 8,000. Research shows that although the hype about cell phone distractions is justified, you should know that distractions come in all shapes and sizes. |
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| "Hear Ye, Hear Ye The experts have voted. Seems most of us drive with brains overloaded" For more help avoiding distractions, see "Two Hands To Steer" |
| <> The "MOTHER OF ALL DISTRACTIONS" |
| Countries like Japan, Great Britain, Spain, Brazil and Switzerland have banned the use of phones while driving. Note they have not banned water bottles, snacks, etc that some companies (such as those in the cellular business) still try to claim are more serious distractions than cell phones. Joseph Tessmer, a NHTSA statistician, estimated 20% to 30% of fatal accidents are due to distractions, but said it's impossible to know for sure because only a few states document distractions in accident reports. ''Just because we are not collecting data on distractions involved in fatal accidents doesn't mean they aren't there,'' he said. SAFERMOM ADVICE We are dismayed at the contradictory “cell phone tips” offered by many experts. They suggest you become familiar with the speed dial system on your phone while also memorizing the key pad -- so that you can reduce the amount of time you spend dialing thereby becoming less distracted while driving. Then they say using a hands free cell phone is a better way to drive and talk at the same time. Two points later they then suggest that you always pull over to make calls. Nothing like covering it all without taking a position! At Safermom we don’t offer contradictory advice. We conducted research that involved our own sweet, gray-haired mothers who delivered us into this world many years ago. We learned that not a single one of them ever made a cell phone call in the car while they were pregnant with us! (Forget the fact that cell phones were'nt invented way back then!!) Gee, maybe that’s why we’re here today! Maybe Mom was concentrating on her driving, rather than a ringing cell phone on the seat next to her! Well that sealed the deal for us so we're going to follow our Mom's lead on this one. So "Dear expectant Mom" we, at Safermom, beg you to follow our advice on this one issue and make...: .....NO PHONE CALLS WHILE "DRIVING FOR TWO." And when it comes to someone calling you while you're driving, just remember that your unborn baby would rather you concentrate on her while you're driving.....rather than a phone call with some less important person! There are enough distractions on the road so please don’t add to the list by creating a few more inside your vehicle (see “Two hands to steer”) ONE LAST THOUGHT REGARDING CELL PHONES in your vehicle: |
| After An Accident: RECOVERY Help is available |
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| For additional information check out: Driver Distraction Internet Forum sponsored by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA study, Investigation of the Safety Implications of Wireless Communications in Vehicles. |
| DON’T WAIT till it’s panic time to fumble your way through a series of calls on your cell phone (like some of us have done!) We recommend that TODAY you call your local police and fire via their non emergency numbers and ask if the best way to reach them (via cell phone) in an emergency is through 9-1-1, or “0” for operator or through their direct emergency number. Some cell phone services seem to slowly connect your calls so you may want to use your local emergency numbers to dial direct to fire, police, ambulance services. |
| EMERGENCIES are scary times so prepare now and learn the fastest way to connect with local helpers. |
| <> EMERGENCY CALLS |
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| Cell Phones. See "Mother of All Distractions" below |
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| Make no mistake about it, Mom, the true “mother of all driver distractions” is cell phone use. The only time you will see it listed otherwise is in research reports dating back several years, before cell phones increased by tens of millions. The number of mobile phone users in the U.S. grew from 500,000 in 1985 to over 63 million by 1998, and today is well over 200 million.. |
| You need to be on the look out for drivers using cell phones as if they were your number one enemy. In fact, my car was rear-ended by a driver looking down to dial his cell phone, so now I constantly look in the mirror to see what the drivers behind me are doing, and hoping I see their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road! |
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| And now you know it's true when we say: |
| A new evaluation by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA) estimates that the use of cell phones by drivers may result in approximately 2,600 deaths, 330,000 moderate to critical injuries, and 1.5 million instances of property damage in America per year. But because the data on cell phone use by motorists are still limited, the range of uncertainty is wide. The estimate of fatalities ranges between 800 and 8,000, and the estimate of injuries is between 100,000 and 1 million. |
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| AAA Motor Club and the "Complex Conversations" Distraction |
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| ..and growing families on the GO! |
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