iDriveFocused.com. Driving while distracted is bad for your health. Here's why.

A recent USA Today article discussed an online survey of teenage drivers by Seventeen Magazine shows that despite awareness of the risks involved, almost 9 out of 10 teens still engage in some form of distracted driving. This is hardly surprising, given the old adage that young adults feel invincible, and always believe that tragedy will happen to someone else. But cliches like that don't stand the test of time unless there is at least some truth behind it. In this case, I think this survey is as strong a body of evidence as any that teenagers, while abstractly understanding the risks involved, have yet to fully process and accept them. And they certainly haven't changed their behavior. 

We can read all the data and numbers we can process and know that distracted driving is a terrible problem, but sometimes facts and figures just don't hit home. Not like this video does:

Did your heart sink? Did you tense up? Imagine how you would feel if you were that driver. Imagine how you would feel if the driver was one of your children. Here's to hoping we never know how that feels.

Don't end up in a video like this.

July has been a momentous month in the fight to prevent distracted driving.  Earlier this month, the Seward Group made headlines and earned the ire of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood when plans to form a lobbying group called the DRIVE (Drivers for Responsible, Innovation and Vehicle Education) Coalition leaked.  The lobbying firm scrapped that idea after Sec. LaHood put it on blast in a press conference on July 7, saying Seward's proposal to galvanize the telecom industry into blocking federal regulations against in-vehicle technologies "jeopardizes the progress we've made by undermining our message about public safety".

 Yesterday, just as ZoomSafer was releasing our new Bluetooth Beta software, there was other news in the world about distracted driving and Bluetooth car kits; Ford announced that the next release of their Ford SYNC car kit will have a "Do Not Disturb" button which, when pressed, will block all incoming calls, text messages, typing on the keypad and will narrow some other features like navigation. To which my first response would have to be... "wait, the Ford SYNC software has features that call for a driver to be typing on a keypad?!"

A new study by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company reveals interesting data about the proliferation of Bluetooth car kits in American vehicles. When this new information is considered in conjunction with the increasing penetration of smartphones in the mobile market, we can see opportunities for innovation and collaboration for both industries. 

A new group of car makers, wireless companies and safety advocates have formed the DRIVE Coaliton, with aims to counter the recent rise in distracted driving legislation.

 As we approach this July 4 weekend, of course we're all looking forward to the BBQs, fireworks, parades and everything else that goes along with one of the most quintessential summer holidays. But statistics show that there's something else that goes along with Independence day - fatal car accidents. The Detroit Burea has an excellent article about this phenomenon and the overall approach that the US takes towards highway safety. They quote Adrian Lund, President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, who asks "Why do we tolerate so many highway deaths?" Lund points out that the government took swift and sweeping action to address the statistically tiny dangers of Toyota's stuck accelerators, while obvious and widespread dangers as simple as speeding go largely unchecked. 

I found this PowerPoint presentation while cruising SlideShare and thought I'd share.  It's an...interesting way to hammer home an essential point on road safety: expect the unexpected.  Check it out:

AAA has put out a video featuring some very good advice about the positive and negative effects passengers can have on one’s distracted driving behaviours.

My personal favorite point they bring up is the “designated texter,” one who takes hold of your phone and sends out the texts as you dictate. It does fill one with an air of self-importance: choosing your words ever so carefully as your personal secretary twiddles their thumbs, trying to catch every phrase flowing effortlessly from your lips…usually something like “Not 2 much goin on. U?” Poetry.

        At Zoomsafer we really do try to address all the possible situations in which distracted driving could be a problem, but our software is definitely not yet ready for Patricia Edwards of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In a 3-2 decision yesterday (really?! what were the 2 thinking?) the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled that a police office had acted appropriately when he seized the fifteen cats that she had in her car as she was driving. The cats were sent to a humane society for adoption, and Edwards was sent on her way with fifteen fewer distractions to prevent her from focusing on the road.