On-duty police officers in Florida are now banned from using their cell phones while on patrol.
Learn more about the police officer cell phone ban at Straight Talk Law.
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Teens Against Distracted Driving was founded by Seattle Car Accident Lawyer Jason Epstein who is also the founder of the Seattle law firm Straight Talk Law
For $99, Get Home Safe, you can purchase this new product that hopes to put an end to texting while driving. It is encouraging to see more and more devices and applications being released that share the same goal and mission.
Learn more about the anti-texting while driving device at Straight Talk Law.
Teens Against Distracted Driving was founded by Seattle Car Accident Lawyer Jason Epstein who is also the founder of the Seattle law firm Straight Talk Law
Seattle car accident lawyer and Washington personal injury attorney, Jason Epstein, was recently featured on News Talk Radio 1530 in Sacramento, California. The segment was centered on the dangers of texting and using cell phones while behind the wheel.
Jason Epstein, the founder of TADD, is also included in a report about the dangers of texting while driving. You can also hear the audio at Straight Talk Law.
To prepare for prom season, school groups and administrators are now addressing the problem of distracted driving in addition to drunk driving. One high school in Georgia shows the dangers of texting while driving in a mock crash.
Our own TADD intern Margot was initially inspired to combat distracted driving at her high school after she saw an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show on the subject.
Oprah is making it her personal mission to bring attention to the problem, and in today’s New York Times, she writes a piece pleading for change. Here’s an excerpt:
But we are hesitant to change. I saw this firsthand when I instituted a policy at my company that forbids employees from using their phones for company business while driving. I heard countless stories about how hard it was for people to stop talking and texting while driving. Everyone is busy. Everyone feels she needs to use time in the car to get things done. But what happened to just driving?
It was difficult for my employees to adjust, but they have. Life is more precious than taking a call or answering an e-mail message. Because even though we think we can handle using our cellphone in the car, the loss of thousands of lives has shown we can’t.
So many issues that we have to deal with seem beyond our control: natural disasters, child predators, traffic jams. Over the years, I’ve done shows on just about all of them. But this is a real problem we can do something about and get immediate results. All we have to do is hang up or switch off. It really is that simple. Once we do that, not another son or daughter will have to die because someone was on the phone and behind the wheel — and just not paying attention.
Results from a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project and the University of Michigan show that the average teenager sends 50 or more text messages a day. (In my opinion, 50 is definitely a low and conservative estimate)
Visit Straight Talk Law to learn more about the teenager texting statistics.
Teens Against Distracted Driving was founded by Seattle Car Accident Lawyer Jason Epstein who is also the founder of the Seattle law firm Straight Talk Law
Mobile Classroom and High-Tech Driving Simulations Give Teens and Other New Drivers Real-Life Lessons on Distracted Driving
QUINCY, Mass., April 21, 2010 – Committed to attacking the increasingly dangerous problem of distracted driving, The Arbella Insurance Group Charitable Foundation (“Arbella”) today launched the Distractology 101 tour, featuring a 36-foot-long, neon-yellow mobile classroom, outfitted with high-tech driving simulators, to give new drivers (usually teenagers) a real-life look at the potentially disastrous effects of distracted driving. Quincy-area teens were among the first to go through the training at an unveiling ceremony at Arbella’s Quincy headquarters and experienced first-hand the extreme dangers of texting or talking on their cell phones while driving.
Distracted driving is a serious and growing problem in the US: resulting in an estimated 1.6 million crashes and 6,000 deaths each year. People who text while driving are 23 percent more likely to be in a crash or barely avoid one. Studies have even shown that driving while distracted is equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol level of .08.
“Drunk driving was the first epidemic,” said John Donohue, chairman, president and CEO of the Arbella Insurance Group and chairman and president of the Arbella Insurance Group Charitable Foundation. “Thanks to widespread education efforts, alcohol-related traffic fatalities have decreased nearly 50 percent since 1980. Arbella is using the same strategy to attack the distracted driving problem. Tough laws are important, but legislation alone won’t change behavior.”
“Our goal with Distractology 101 is to put 10,000 new drivers through this training,” continued Donohue. “It’s part of Arbella’s ongoing commitment to our customers, our agents and our community. If we save even one life, we’ll have made a difference.”
The driving simulator tour, which is two years in the making and based on Arbella-funded research conducted with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is designed to create a new generation of safe drivers. It will travel to select communities throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island over the next three years.
“During their first month on the road, novice drivers are six times more likely to be in a fatal crash than drivers with a year’s driving experience,” said Dr. Donald L. Fisher, professor and department head at the College of Engineering, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and national expert on distracted driving. “In our lab, we have developed a program for Arbella which mimics real-life driving. Evaluations of this program suggest that it makes novice drivers substantially more likely to engage in behaviors that will help them avoid crashes. Compared with untrained novice drivers who fail to anticipate hazards 40 percent of the time, program participants fail only 10 percent of the time. That’s powerful evidence for the benefits of education.”
During the driving simulator training, called Distractology 101: A Crash Course on Distracted Driving, teens and other new drivers will face a number of scenarios based on real-world examples that illustrate the dangers of distracted driving and teach participants how to anticipate hidden hazards, react to the road and avoid accidents. Participants are then asked to complete the online portion of the curriculum. At www.DistractU.com, they’ll take a training lesson for reinforcement of what they learned in the classroom and a safe driving pledge in order to complete the training.
Distractology 101 will teach participants everything they need to know about this new area of study: the science of distraction. It even has its own vocabulary, with buzzwords like “textident” (an accident caused by texting), “smerging” (swerving while merging) and “fishmailing” (losing control of the back of your car while emailing).
To find out when the Distractology 101 tour is coming to a community near you, log on to www.distractU.com/Students/Tour, then sign up for the training by contacting your local participating agent.
Teens Against Distracted Driving was founded by Seattle Car Accident Lawyer Jason Epstein who is also the founder of the Seattle law firm Straight Talk Law.
I’m new to distracted driving community and was surprised to see the number of states that are reluctant to pass bans on hand held use while driving. The second map is most telling and demonstrates a need for public education campaigns to begin changing driver behaviors.
Texing bans by state -- April 2010
Hand held bans by state -- April 2010
Having a strong law on the books gives groups like ours additional leverage to reach the public. Teens Against Distracted Driving was fortunate enough to be founded in Washington state, one of the seven states that has a ban on all hand held devices, for all drivers. Thanks to the vision of Seattle attorney Jason Epstein, our group of dedicated students are even afforded some resources to educate the public on this deadly behavior before our hand held law takes effect June 10.
But what about all those gray states in the hand held ban map above? Passing a law won’t change behavior overnight and the task of educating the public and changing the behaviors of friends, neighbors and family in each state will rely on individuals and groups with few resources. My hope is that Teens Against Distracted Driving’s public education campaign can be a model for groups in states that are slower to pass legislation, but still have dedicated community groups working on the cause.
We’ll be documenting our campaign as we create it and are quite interested in the past experiences and best practices of groups that have already begun to tackle this tremendous task.
Our friends at NoDistractions.org are holding a contest. Now that we have a strong law on the books on cell phone driving, we need a compelling slogan to make all drivers in Washington state aware of the consequences of talking/texting.
Think: “Drive Hammered, Get Nailed.” Submit your ideas to info@nodistractions.org by 5 pm on April 23.
Driving crashes account for up to 44 percent of all teen deaths and are the leading cause of teenage deaths in the United States, according to recent studies by the National Safety Council. Learning to drive well takes time, practice, and proper guidance. To help parents help their teens, the National Safety Council has partnered with Midas on the Alive at 25 Parent Program, an online course for parents with new teen drivers.
This interactive program typically costs $25, but is being provided by Midas free of charge (while supplies last), to get parents involved in training their teens to become safe, responsible and defensive drivers. Upon successful completion of this course parents will receive an official National Safety Council Certificate of Completion and a free Midas Touch Maintenance Package.
The National Safety Council’s Alive at 25 online program:
• Outlines the risks young drivers face
• Helps parents take responsibility for reducing such risks
• Includes realistic situations to help teens think through options and outcomes before they encounter them in real life
• Helps parents reinforce basic driving and good-decision making skills
• Teaches skills and lessons through interactive media, workbook exercises, role playing and more
Visit the Midas Website to Learn More about the Campaign
This information was provided by Midas.
Teens Against Distracted Driving was founded by Seattle Car Accident Lawyer Jason Epstein who is also the founder of the Seattle law firm Straight Talk Law