Thursday, April 20, 2006
CNN: Multitasking Triples Car Crash Risk, Study Finds
Posted by Raphael Salgado in "ARTICLE" @ 02:00 PM
"Multitasking drivers are three times as likely to be involved in a crash as more attentive motorists who don't dab on makeup, eat breakfast, or chat on cell phones, a new study reveals. Almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes happen within three seconds of some form of driver distraction, according to the report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute."
I'm glad that the NHTSA and VTTI were able to perform and report this study, as it's obvious that more people (especially the younger generation) are equipped with mobile devices from iPods to Sidekicks to Pocket PCs to GPS Navigators, which makes it even more dangerous. Of course, the article has to sport a picture of a Samsung MITS Pocket PC phone. :oops: I've been guilty of it myself, especially when I had my HTC Universal, Wizard, and Apache devices, each of which required two hands to operate, leaving the steering wheel to the control of my knees. And don't even get me started about keyboardless-devices and using the stylus! At least my Treo 700w offers real one-handedness and Voice Command, but after reading this report, having a family with two precious kids and another on the way, I'm not even sure a Bluetooth headset is enough preventative medicine anymore. Perhaps we all need to pull over or have better self-control as to not multitask so much, especially in situations where our lives and others depend on it, or when it... just... can... wait. What do you think? Have you been in situations where you found yourself multitasking in the wrong place at the wrong time? Have you ever been a victim or nearly one because of someone else doing that?
I'm glad that the NHTSA and VTTI were able to perform and report this study, as it's obvious that more people (especially the younger generation) are equipped with mobile devices from iPods to Sidekicks to Pocket PCs to GPS Navigators, which makes it even more dangerous. Of course, the article has to sport a picture of a Samsung MITS Pocket PC phone. :oops: I've been guilty of it myself, especially when I had my HTC Universal, Wizard, and Apache devices, each of which required two hands to operate, leaving the steering wheel to the control of my knees. And don't even get me started about keyboardless-devices and using the stylus! At least my Treo 700w offers real one-handedness and Voice Command, but after reading this report, having a family with two precious kids and another on the way, I'm not even sure a Bluetooth headset is enough preventative medicine anymore. Perhaps we all need to pull over or have better self-control as to not multitask so much, especially in situations where our lives and others depend on it, or when it... just... can... wait. What do you think? Have you been in situations where you found yourself multitasking in the wrong place at the wrong time? Have you ever been a victim or nearly one because of someone else doing that?
