Texting while driving

A person must divide their attention between the road ahead and their phone when they text while driving

Texting while driving is the act of sending or reading text message(s) or email while operating a motor vehicle (such as an automobile, truck, or train). The practice has been viewed as dangerous, has been ruled as the cause of some motor vehicle accidents, and in some places has been outlawed or restricted.

Texting while driving is said to lead to increased distraction behind the wheel. In 2006, Liberty Mutual Insurance Group conducted a survey with more than 900 teens from over 26 high schools nationwide. The results showed that 37% of students found texting to be, "very" or "extremely" distracting. Then later on, a study by the AAA discovered that an alarming 46% of teens admitted to being distracted behind the wheel due to texting. One example of distraction behind the wheel is the 2008 Chatsworth train collision which killed 25 passengers. The subsequent investigation revealed that the engineer had sent 45 text messages while operating the train.

A 2009 experiment with Car and Driver magazine editor Eddie Alterman that took place at a deserted air strip showed that texting while driving had a greater impact on safety than driving drunk. While legally drunk, Alterman's stopping distance from 70 mph increased by 4 feet; by contrast, reading an e-mail added 36 feet, and sending a text added 70 feet.

On August 24, 2009, a town in Wales, Great Britain filmed a realistic scenerio in graphic detail on the dangers and possibly fatal consequences of texting while driving.

Research

The scientific literature on the dangers of driving while sending a text message from a mobile phone, or driving while texting, is limited. A simulation study at the Monash University Accident Research Centre provided strong evidence that retrieving and, in particular, sending text messaged has a detrimental effect on a number of safety critical driving measures. Specifically, negative effects were seen in detecting and responding correctly to road signs, detecting hazards, time spent with eyes off the road, and (only for sending text messages) lateral position. Surprisingly, mean speed, speed variability, lateral position when receiving text messages, and following distance showed no difference. A separate, yet unreleased simulation study at the University of Utah found a sixfold increase in distraction-related accidents when texting.

The low number of scientific studies may be indicative of a general assumption that if talking on a mobile phone increases risk, then texting also increases risk, and probably more so. 89% of U.S. adults think that text messaging while driving is "distracting, dangerous and should be outlawed." The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has released polling data that show that 87% of people consider texting and e-mailing while driving a "very serious" safety threat, almost equivalent to the 90% of those polled who consider drunk driving a threat. Despite the acknowledgement of the dangers of texting behind the wheel, about half of drivers 16 to 24 say they have texted while driving, compared with 22 percent of drivers 35 to 44.

Texting while driving received greater attention in the late 2000s, corresponding to a rise in the number of text messages being sent. The 2008 Will Smith movie Seven Pounds deals with Smith's character committing suicide in order to donate his organs to help save the lives of seven people to make up for the seven people he killed in a car accident because he was receiving a text message while he was driving. Texting while driving attracted interest in the media after several highly publicized car crashes were caused by texting drivers, including a May 2009 incident involving a Boston trolley car driver who crashed while texting his girlfriend. Texting was blamed in the 2008 Chatsworth train collision which killed 25 passengers. Investigations revealed that the engineer of that train had sent 45 text messages while operating.

On July 27, 2009, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute released preliminary findings of their study of driver distraction in commercial vehicles. Two studies, comprising about 200 long-haul trucks driving 3 million combined miles, used video cameras to observe the drivers and road; researchers observed 4,452 safety-critical events, which includes crashes, near crashes, safety-critical events, and lane deviations. 81% of the safety critical events had some type of driver distraction. Text messaging had the greatest relative risk, with drivers being 23 times more likely to experience a safety-critical event when texting. The study also found that drivers typically take their eyes off the forward roadway for an average of four out of six seconds when texting, and an average of 4.6 out of the six seconds surrounding safety-critical events.

Notable accidents

• The 2008 Chatsworth train collision, which killed 25 people, and which occurred on September 12, 2008, was blamed on the operator sending text messages while operating the train.

• In 2009, a crash on the MBTA Green Line of the Boston area was blamed on a driver who was texting. This occurred nearly a year after the Newton, Massachusetts rail accident, which occurred on May 28, 2008, and was blamed on the operator using a cell phone while operating the train.

Laws by location

A large number of countries ban all cell phone use while driving (talking and texting).

Canada

The provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Quebec have banned both talking and texting while driving.

United States

Texting while driving has been outlawed or is soon to be outlawed for all drivers in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. The state of Texas prohibits school bus drivers from texting while transporting a child under 17. The states of Delaware, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, and West Virginia have laws restricting those who are underage and/or with learner's permits from texting while driving.

In Florida, a proposed bill known as "Heather's Law" would ban all cell phone use while driving. The law was inspired by the death of Heather Hurd, who was killed in an accident allegedly caused by a truck driver who crashed into 10 cars when he was sending a text message behind the wheel.

Existing laws

State	Effective	Restriction	Penalty	Other details	Source
Alabama		Sending and reading	$25 first offense $50 second offense $75 third offense 1 point on license	Bill also bans manual use of GPS devices while driving
Arkansas	October 2009	All drivers, regardless of age or experience, prohibited from sending text messages while driving		Known as HB1013 or "Paul's Law." Exempts emergency service providers in the provision of services.
California	January 1, 2009	Prohibits sending electronic text messages while driving	$20 first offense $50 each subsequent offense
Colorado	December 1, 2009	Prohibits sending text messages, email, or tweets while driving	$50 first offense $100 second offense	Also prohibits drivers under 18 from talking on a cellphone while driving
Connecticut		All handheld cell phone use banned
Delaware		legal
District of Columbia		All handheld cell phone use banned
Florida		Legal
Georgia		Legal
Hawaii		Legal
Idaho		Legal
Illinois	Jan 2010	Illegal
Indiana	2009	Drivers under 18 prohibited from texting and driving
Iowa		Legal				New York	2009	Illegal

See also

• Mobile phones and driving safety
• Cell phone bans (on talking) by country

External links

• Cell phone and driving laws in the United States (including texting)