Articles Posted in Distracted Driving

Tesla is probably the best known for the various high-tech systems in its automobiles many of which can help a driver avoid being in an accident.  However, one newly-introduced feature most likely has the opposite effect.  A recent but little-known feature in Tesla vehicles allows occupants, including passengers, to play in-car video games in full view of the driver.

Motorists as well as passengers can play one of several popular video games while the car is in operation. The kind of distraction that this poses to the driver cannot be overstated.  Tesla has been under scrutiny for the safety of its tech systems, including the auto drive systems that allow the car to be operated without the motorist placing his hands on the steering wheel, for several months now. Tesla is also under a federal investigation regarding accidents involving its cars that have resulted in several deaths. Since 2016, more than ten people have died in accidents that were caused when the Tesla cars crashed while in auto pilot mode.  Unfortunately, Tesla has not been able to come up with a fool-proof system that will prompt the driver to keep his eyes on the road while the car is being operated automatically.

The risk of accidents involving these cars has been the subject of federal probes for serval months now, and the introduction of this new feature that allows occupants to play video games while driving the car has federal agencies even more concerned. Regulators at the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is currently leading the safety probe into Tesla models, have asked the automaker for more information about the video game features in its cars.

Many accidents that occur in parking lots involve distracted motorists. The National Safety Council says that a focus on avoiding distractions in these areas as well as technology that can prevent such crashes could help reduce those accident numbers.

Parking lot accidents can involve two cars or a car and pedestrian. The latter are very common, and get a lot of attention because the pedestrians in these cases may suffer serious injuries as a result of these accidents. According to a National Safety Nonoil poll, 66 percent of motorists admit that they use their phone calls for various activities while driving in a parking lot. About 63 percent would fiddle with their GPS systems while at the wheel of a moving car, 56 percent would text at the wheel and more than half would scroll through social media on the phone or send and receive emails while driving in a parking lot. Close to half would take photos or watch videos while driving in these areas.

Motorists tend to have a false sense of complacency when they are driving through a parking lot. Speeds are lower, and there is minimal traffic in a parking lot.  The idea that nothing could possibly happen when you are driving at low speeds or backing out of your spot while distracted is very strong in many motorists’ minds. Those crash risks increase during busy shopping times, like the holiday season when traffic is even higher.  The risks are compounded by the fact that holiday shoppers are usually in a hurry to back out or get home.

If you’re out driving on the roads anywhere, there is no doubt you’ve seen them – traffic signs.  Traffic safety signs play a huge part in helping reduce traffic accident fatalities every year. However, for many motorists, they are usually routine, and extremely easy to ignore.

To help improve noticeability, the Georgia Department of Transportation had recently announced a contest that invited residents of Georgia to submit their ideas for traffic safety signs, and the results are out. The contest had been announced last fall, and was meant to revamp traffic signs across the state, and make them more interesting and eye-catching. Residents were asked to submit their captions for traffic signs in several categories. These categories included distracted driving, impaired driving, seat belt use, work zone safety, and general safety.

The Georgia Department of Transportation received hundreds of entries for the contest, and chose the best and wittiest one-liners in the contest. Here’s a sampling of some of the captions that made the winners’ list.

It has been over a year since Georgia’s Hands-Free Law went into effect on July 1, 2018.  Since then, a few other states have joined Georgia in implementing bans on hand-held devices while driving.  It may be surprising to know, however, that while almost all states in the U.S. have no-texting-and-driving laws, only about one-third of the states in the U.S. have a complete cell phone ban while operating a motor vehicle.  But do these hands-free laws stop distracted driving, and more importantly, reduce the risk of deadly car accidents?  Not necessarily.

Distracted driving is the number one cause of fatal traffic accidents nationwide. A driver can be distracted due to a number of causes besides just using a cell phone.  Any activity that takes a driver’s attention away from the road, even for a second, counts as distracted driving.  This can include eating or drinking in the car, putting on makeup and even changing the radio station.  Statistics on hands-free laws have shown that even though the number of drivers using cell phones may be down, the number of car accidents is not.  However, cell phone use while driving has been known to cause the most deadly results of the distracted driving car accidents.

Even with hands-free laws around the country, statistics show that man drivers are still using their phones while driving.   It is still pretty common to see drivers using their phones while stopped at red lights at intersections or stuck in traffic. And a fair number of drivers actively use their cell phones while actually driving on the roads.  Drivers who engage in active cell phone use while driving are usually the ones that engage in other high risk behaviors while driving as well.

Everyone knows of the dangers of using a cell phone while driving, but there is yet another driving distraction that most people in Georgia are not aware of – daydreaming.

Most of us would not consider daydreaming to be a dangerous activity.  However, driving while daydreaming significantly increases your risk of being involved in an accident.  In fact, driving while daydreaming is one of the leading causes of accidents.  Unfortunately, most people may not even realize the dangers associated with driving while daydreaming since it is something most of us do at the wheel at one point or another.

New research shows that most people are likely to daydream when they are behind the wheel, especially when driving familiar routes.   In a recent study, participants submitted to a driving simulation and had their brain activity analyzed during the simulation.  The researchers found that people’s minds were more likely to wander, i.e. daydream, when they were involved in a routine driving activity such as driving the same route several times as opposed to driving in unfamiliar settings.  The daydreaming occurred more than 70% of the time during the study.  Even more concerning was the finding that the participants were only aware that they were distracted approximately 65% of the time.