Tag: DWT

No matter how many times scientists, the Mythbusters, the government or even we bloggers tell you that driving while talking on the phone is dangerous, you just don't listen. So, why isn't the road littered with the shells of burned-out cars and the bodies of drive-time chatterboxes? A new study from economists Saurabh Bhargava, at the University of Chicago, and Vikram Pathania, of the London ...

In May of 2009, we learned that, despite fully knowing the dangers of doing so, most teens were still driving while texting. A new survey from AAA and Seventeen Magazine shows that, even though awareness has improved, still more teens are engaging in distracting behavior while driving. The study asked 1,999 teens (apparently unable to get just one more kid), ages 16 to 19, about the sorts of ...

As mobile technology grows, it seems, so do the dangers of driving. First, we got talking while driving, which, though irritating, rarely results in more than an exceptionally slow driver. Then, we started seeing the evidence of texting while driving -- the swerving, the stoplight-running, etc. Well, now, with the smartphone, we have to deal with those bewildering types who have the gall to ...

Given all the fuss over the need for laws banning cell phone use while driving, the latest study from the Highway Loss Data Institute will probably be as much of a shocker to you as it has been to experts. Despite the fact that researchers have found talking on cell phones has the same effect on drivers as alcohol, such laws have apparently had no effect on the number of accidents in New York, ...

It's bad enough when someone drives around with a cell phone glued to their ear. But one Australian man recently thought he could do the Average Driving-While-Calling Joe two better. The Herald Sun reports that this man, who has not been identified by police, was pulled over by sergeant Rob Atkinson of the Chelsea Traffic Management Unit for driving while using two cell phones on Saturday ...

By now, we're all aware of how dangerous it is to text while driving. But, like children who just can't resist touching a hot stove, people continue to do it. While a car accident is never good, some are worse than others. For example, crashing into a parked cop car because you were texting is about as bad as it gets. That's just what happened late Wednesday night to one unfortunate, or just ...

The State of California enacted a cell-phone ban for teenage drivers in 2007, and a hands-free-only policy for everybody else in 2008. Since the latter date, the Highway Patrol has cited over 150,000 drivers for talking on their cells. The TMZ celebrity stalkers, ensuring that famous people be held to the same standards as the plebeians, have repeatedly caught one member of the California ruling ...

People continue to text message and use other portable devices while driving, despite knowing what a dangerous habit it can be. Just look out your window while rolling down the interstate, and you'll see that businessman glued to his BlackBerry or a teenage girl texting away. But glance a little higher, and you might behold an even scarier sight. Truck drivers rely heavily on electronic devices ...

The dangers of driving while texting (DWT) are undeniable, yet people continue motoring along, heads down, fingers flying, as they clog up traffic or swerve in and out of lanes. In a nod to the classic blood-and-guts driver's ed films of the '50s and '60s, a police department in Wales has decided the best way to raise awareness of the deadly DWT epidemic is to disgust and scare the crap out of ...

You should all be well aware by now that driving and texting is dangerous. In fact, so is talking on the phone while behind the wheel. So what exactly possessed Nicholas Sparks, a 25-year-old tow truck driver from Burt, NY, to do both at the same time? The mind-bogglingly reckless (and inept) multitasker was allegedly texting and talking while towing two cars -- he also had two motorcycles in the ...

For many today, texting has become the primary way of communicating with friends and family. The physical setting for texting usually doesn't matter, but a new study suggests you might want to think twice about using a phone when you're behind the wheel. According to The New York Times, a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers who text while on the road are 23 times ...

A recent Harris Interactive poll reveals that the overwhelming majority of U.S. cell phone users have, at some point, witnessed inappropriate public cell phone use. Nearly none of them, however, seem ready to admit that they are guilty themselves. According to Matt Richtel's investigative piece for the New York Times, that same hypocritical obliviousness especially applies to texting and ...

Everyday, people drive with their ears stuck to cell phones or their eyes glancing between text messages and the road. Most never even give their DWT (driving while texting/talking) a second thought. The team behind a new ad campaign hopes to change that. The not-for-profit National Safety Council just launched a Florida billboard campaign called 'Death by Cell Phone.' According to Fort ...

How many more times do we have to be told that driving while texting is dangerous? We know! Please stop doing studies and surveys. What's that you say, Car And Driver? You've got a video where you put real people behind the wheel of real vehicles, and make them read and fire off messages? Then, you get them them hammered to find out if DWT (driving while texting) is actually as bad as driving ...

In a scene we're 95-percent sure was ripped out of a movie made in the 1980s starring some combination of Matthew Broderick, Emilio Estevez, and Christina Applegate, a Tampa high school senior went for quite a ride last week. ABC Action News reports that the girl, Katelyn Blaylock, never showed up at school last Wednesday morning. Instead, she was cruising around Tampa in her car and doing a ...