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Gordon Glantz is the managing editor of the Times Herald and an award winning columnist.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Watching The Detectives

I always love reports like the one you are about to read. Who pays these people to stumble upon the obvious in their studies? Outside of Hollywood overpaying for bad movie scripts, these studies have to be the biggest waste to time and money we have to offer.

Roughly 25 percent of us text-message while driving? Duh? That's just about the correct amount of self-centered dingbats we have in America.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) – A quarter of American cell phone users admit to texting while driving, despite bans in seven U.S. states and several serious accidents recently, according to a report on cell phone use released on Wednesday.

The report also found that some of the worst driving-while-texting, or DWT, offenders live in states where the practice is already banned or where legislation is pending.

Drivers in Tennessee were the most prolific texters, with 42 percent of those questioned admitting to the habit. A ban on using a cell phone to text while driving goes into effect in Tennessee in July.

Yet 83 percent of the 5,000 people surveyed across the United States said they thought DWT should be illegal. The survey was carried out on behalf of mobile voice technology company Vlingo.

Text messaging has been blamed for a number of recent high profile accidents, including a train crash in the Los Angeles area last September in which 25 people were killed, and a Boston trolley crash this month in which almost 50 people were injured.

In both cases, the drivers were found to have been sending and receiving text messages seconds before the crashes.

"Texting is such an integral component of our daily lives, and the cautionary tales about DWT danger have not stemmed the tide," said Dave Grannan, CEO of Vlingo.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Multitasking has been going on for many years. But Gordy, the one that I thought was unbelieveable was traveling on 422 Bypass, at the 29 entrance, a lady with a map on her dashboard, phone up to her ear and trying to put on eye makeup pulled out in front of our car. You can believe there are quite a few dingbats here locally. I'm a people watcher from way back, but driving or being a passenger on 422 or 202 scares me. Now if you add texing to the above, how safe are we nonphone users while driving?

May 21, 2009 at 3:20 PM 
Anonymous Evan said...

LOL! A study shows that 9 of 10 dentists agree that brushing your teeth is good for you!

May 21, 2009 at 5:53 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hard-hitting story there Gordon. Way to keep pushing the journalism envelope.

May 21, 2009 at 7:47 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Evan - LOL! Do you believe they, the Dentist, believe it would be more beneficial to brush when driving? I hope not!

June 20, 2009 at 4:06 PM 

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