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Cell Phones

Texting Bus Driver Caught Red-Thumbed by Passenger's Phone Pic

The debate about driving while texting (DWT) is about to hit a fever pitch. If you think people were up in arms about this dangerous habit before, just wait till you hear the latest alarming story. According to the New York Post, a New York City bus driver is being investigated after a passenger snapped a picture of him texting while steering the bus through thick traffic Thursday. Allegedly, the unnamed driver sent three messages during his route from Manhattan to Staten Island. Transit spokesman Charles Seaton told the Post that drivers are prohibited from using a cell phone while in the driver's seat.

While this story is a black eye on the city, it's also ill-timed news for the entire state, which saw a new ban on texting go into effect today. There's a positive side, though. More people might be waking up to the dangers of texting on the road. Yet another new poll by The New York Times and CBS News found that 97-percent of those polled support a ban on driving while texting. Even more resounding, 50-percent said the practice should be treated like drunk driving. With such overwhelming support, it wouldn't be a surprise to see stateside crackdowns similar to the one in England (where texting now results in serious jail time.)

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Computers

Vanity Plate Causes Man To Get Over $19K in Parking Tickets

While we don't quite understand it, many people like to add some personality to their cars by way of vanity plates. The plates usually read something corny like "2KOOL4U," "MYRIDE1," or, in one Alabama man's case, "XXXXXXX." That's because, when Scottie Roberson was a young man, he built custom cars under the pseudonym "Racer X," and because his favorite number is seven.

While this whole concept of vanity tags does puzzle us, these plates shouldn't be any problem. Except, in the nearby city of Birmingham where police, whenever they find an illegally parked car that doesn't have tags, write down seven Xs on the parking ticket. When those citations are entered into the computer system, Roberson's name -- of course -- pops up. According to The Birmingham News, Roberson has received more than $19,000 in parking tickets since last year. Sometimes, he says, he'll find as many as 10 tickets from 10 different places in his mailbox.

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Cell Phones

Texting Driver Crashes Into Cop Car


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 dumb, Rhode Island man.

According to The Providence Journal, David Mercer crashed his Jeep into a police car that had been parked on the highway in order to divert traffic around a wreck farther up the road. Mercer claimed that he didn't see the empty idling car, despite its flashing blue lights, because he was text messaging. Thankfully, no one was injured, and, lucky for Mercer, texting while driving hasn't been banned in Rhode Island (although it has been in several other states). That being the case, he won't face any criminal charges stemming from the accident. According to the Journal, he was cited with "failure to maintain control of his vehicle, obedience to devices, and no insurance," none of which are criminal charges.

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Car Tech

SmartCap Could Save Lives by Keeping Sleepy Drivers Awake

Obviously, hats are typically employed as fashion accessories, idealistic symbols, sun blockers, and security blankets for insecure, attention-seeking guidos. Australian company CRC Mining, though, has reportedly created an invaluable hat which may actually save lives.

Directed by Dr. Daniel Bongers, researchers equipped the Smart Cap wonder hat, which is currently being tested on operators and drivers of Anglo American machines and trucks, with brain monitoring sensors that can actually determine if the wearer is falling asleep. If the cap detects signs of fatigue, it relays a signal to a screen in the truck's cab which emits a warning alert and advises the driver to pull over and rest.

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Cell Phones

93% of Americans Support Ban on Texting While Driving, Finds Poll

Apparently all those studies and advertisements about the dangers of texting while driving are getting through to the American people. According to Motor Trend, Ford recently commissioned a survey that found 93-percent of the participants support a nationwide ban on texting while driving. It looks like the automotive giant surveyed a bunch of cynics though -- because only 42-percent said they believe drivers would actually stop texting if the ban was enacted.

Ford has (sort of) found a compromise, of course, and it has the numbers to back it up. When asked if they'd use voice-activation technology (like Ford's SYNC), 76-percent said they'd be interested in a car equipped with such a feature. Ford executives are surely licking their chops at the potential market possibilities. But there's one problem. It's not just busy hands that make using a cell phone while driving dangerous. Studies show that it's the burden put on your brain that leads to distracted drivers and more accidents.

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Car Tech, Computers

Truckers' Nav Systems as Bad as Driving While Texting

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 ranging from computers to GPS systems to complete their jobs in a timely fashion. However, The New York Times reports that many lawmakers are pushing for such devices to be banned because of the dangers involved with distracted driving.

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Cell Phones

Texting and Talking Tow Truck Driver Crashes Into Pool

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 bed of his truck. The distracted driver then rear-ended the car of 68-year-old Lily White, careened through a yard, side-swiped a house, before finally dunking his flatbed and vehicular cargo into the in-ground pool of Brad Kanel.

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Cell Phones

Texting Drivers 23 Times More Likely to Wreck

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 more likely to crash than those who don't. With the help of footage gathered by cameras attached to 18-wheelers, the study analyzed how long drivers turned away from the road while sending or receiving texts. The average response time was around five seconds, enough time to travel 100 yards (the length of a football field). Lead researcher Rick Hanowski told the Times that drivers should never text because it's "in its own universe of risk."

Should texting while driving be banned?

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Cell Phones

'Death by Cell Phone' Ad Campaign Launches in Florida


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 Myers-based News-Press.com, the billboards (pictured above) feature images of a 61-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy, both of whom died in accidents caused by drivers on cell phones. Eventually, the campaign will span 67 markets in 37 states. The NSC says that people who are chatting on cell phones are four times more likely to crash than those who aren't. According to the organization, such DWTs cause 636,000 accidents and 2,600 deaths every year. The NSC hopes the billboards, which will be seen by about 56,000 folks each day in Florida alone, will encourage drivers to put down the phones and focus on the road.

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Car Tech

Creepy Bleeding Billboard Warns Drivers About Wet Roads


Eerie, extreme advertisements often make for an effective campaign, but New Zealand's new push to keep drivers safe during rainy weather borders on creepy. After a particularly wet season, the local government in Papakura, New Zealand noticed a surge in traffic deaths.

So, naturally, to direct drivers' attention to their driving conditions, the Kiwis put up a billboard that bleeds when it rains. When the skies open up, red liquid gushes out of the boy on the billboard's nose, eyes, and ears. Hopefully the gruesome sign will make a point, not distract eyes from the road.

Oh, and reportedly, since the blood-bath billboard went up, there hasn't been a fatal wreck in the area. [From: Gizmodo, via Buzzfeed]

Cell Phones

New Jersey May Ban GPS While Driving

New Jersey drivers, already banned from using cell phones while driving, may also be banned from programming their GPS units. Just fifteen months after a state-wide ban on behind-the-wheel talking and texting took effect in March of 2008, one New Jersey legislator wants to up the ante, according to the DailyRecord.

On June 8th, Harvey Smith, a Democratic Assemblyman from Jersey City, introduced a bill specifying that only voice-activated GPS systems could be programmed while driving. Disobedient drivers, according to the bill, would be fined $100 -- the same penalty for using cell phones.

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Car Tech, Web

Report Bad Drivers Online at Zapatag

Report Bad Drivers Online at Zapatag

Have you ever wished that you could take your revenge on that guy who cut you off on the road without chasing him through traffic leaning out your window with a baseball bat? There's a better (and passive-aggressive) way to do it: Whine anonymously on a Web site.

Introducing Zapatag, a Web site created for the sole purpose of shaming bad drivers. After signing up, you can post license plate numbers, incident locations, and details of the offense that left you steaming behind the wheel. The site enables you to search plate numbers to see if there are previous complaints about the driver (or against you), and it lets you plot reports on a map to see all the bad drivers in your neighborhood.

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Is 'Dialing While Driving' the Worst Thing a Motorist Can Do?


Dialing while driving can sure ruin your day in a hurry. Over the weekend, a Boston trolley driver slammed his passenger-loaded trolley into another, injuring 50 people because he was distracted by text messaging his girlfriend. Just last month, a texting driver veered off of Idaho's Interstate 84 straight into a parked police cruiser. In March, a California driver dunked her car into the Oakland Estuary after trying to reach for a ringing cell phone -- fortunately, she saved her coffee. These accidents got us thinking: Is dialing (be it texting, talking, reaching, or actual dialing) while driving the most dangerous distraction on the road?

Local governments are taking action by enacting bans on texting and talking while driving, but why stop there? Handsfree units and touchscreen GPS units should be banned too, and we definitely can't allow CD players. That coffee you just bought to go? Ban it. It's not our gadgets that are causing us to drive like idiots on the road, it's distraction, which is just as likely to come from thinking about balancing a checkbook as it is to come from switching Pandora stations on your car-stereo-connected iPhone.

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Cell Phones

Bus Driver Crashes While Texting, Caught on Camera


We really shouldn't have to be saying this anymore, but texting while driving is a bad idea.

Texting on the road has been blamed for several deaths, and compared to the danger of driving drunk. It's actually illegal in many states, and yet, here we have a video of a Texas bus driver pulling a cell phone out of his pocket and promptly slamming into the back of a car. As if it couldn't be worse, the car is full of disabled passengers. Oh, and there are several cameras on the bus. This bus driver is, in a word, busted.

It appears that nobody was harmed in the incident, but the driver lost his job (obviously). We know sometimes it's hard to ignore your phone, but try, because as we've noted many, many times -- texting + driving = bad. [From: CNN]

Cell Phones

9,000 Tickets Given to NY Cell Phone Drivers in One Day

9,000 Tickets Given to NY Cell Phone Drivers in One Day

You know that using a cell phone while driving in New York state is illegal, right? Unless you're using a hands-free kit, it is. Since the law passed, most police officers have been rather lenient in issuing tickets, generally only giving them out when someone is pulled over for another offense -- like speeding or poor driving. Last Thursday, however, police in New York City decided it was time for a crackdown, issuing 9,016 tickets in a single day.

This, too, shouldn't have been a surprise, as the New York Police Department (NYPD) wasn't secretive about its plans, issuing warnings through newspapers and local television networks. Starting at 12:01am last Thursday morning, officers kept their eyes open for driving talkers. Here's an idea of how effective they were: In 2008, about 535 tickets were given out each day for the same offense, meaning more people were ticketed on one day last week than were in an average two-week span. It remains to be seen whether the NYPD will maintain this level of attention going forward, but even using a hands-free kit may be banned before long, which may make give officers something else to look out for. [From: NY Daily News]

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