This document discusses the dangers of texting while driving and distracted driving legislation. It provides the following key points: - Texting while driving significantly impairs driving skills and reaction times, increasing the risk of accidents. Alberta has passed legislation restricting handheld cell phone use and other distractions while driving. - Surveys show that Canadian drivers' cell phone use while driving has risen from 20.5% in 2001 to 37% in 2006, with most using their phone for less than 10 minutes per week. - Texting while driving has been linked to several deadly accidents. Reaction times are slowed by 1.2 to 1.6 seconds while texting, increasing risks at highway speeds. Drivers are encouraged

1. Texting
While
Driving --
Another Kind
of
Impairment

2. Texting While Driving Is Hazardous
• Driving skill is measurably impaired by
text-messaging.
• Writing text messages creates a
significantly greater impairment than
reading text messages, but both are
harmful

3. Distracted Driving Legislation (Bill 16)
Alberta
• Restricts drivers from: using hand-held cell phones
• texting or e-mailing
• using electronic devices like laptop computers, video
games, cameras, video entertainment displays and programming
portable audio players (e.g., MP3 players)
• entering information on GPS units
• reading printed materials in the vehicle
• writing, printing or sketching, and
• personal grooming
• Complements the current driving without due care and attention
legislation Applies to all vehicles as defined by the Traffic Safety
Act, including bicycles Applies to all roads in both urban and rural
areas of the province The fine for this new offence is $172

4. Driver Cell Phone Use in the General
Population in Canada (worksafebc)
• The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (“TIRF”) conducted telephone
surveys in 2001 and 2006 to determine how often Canadians use cell
phones while driving. From these surveys, the TIRF concluded that
• Canadians’ use of cell phones appears to be growing. The TIRF’s
2001 survey on driver distraction found that 20.5% of drivers reported
• using their cell phone while driving in the past seven days. In its
2006 survey, the TIRF found that the number had risen to 37% of
drivers.
This translates into approximately 8.2 million Canadian drivers using a
cell phone while driving each week.

5. Survey of Using Cell Phone per week
while Driving
• 2006 survey, almost 70% of drivers stated that
they used their cell phone while driving for
less than 10 minutes per week
• 2001, only 57.6% of drivers reported using
their phones for less than 10 minutes per
week.

6. Texting Drivers
in the
News

7. • A 17-year-old texting driver in New York state
swerved into oncoming traffic and hit a truck head-
on, killing herself and her four passengers.
• A texting California train engineer was involved in
the collision near Los Angeles that killed 25
passengers and injured 130 others.

8. Texting Drivers in the News, cont.
• An 18-year-old texting driver in Texas
slammed full-speed into a stopped
vehicle, sending a 3-year-old passenger in that
vehicle to the ICU at a local hospital with a
broken skull.
• A 16-year-old texting driver in California lost
control and dies in the ensuing crash (she was
also speeding and had been drinking).

9. What Studies Show About Cell Phones
• Drivers talking on their cell phones are 18
percent slower braking than other motorists
(University of Utah, 2005)
• Talking on a cell phone while driving causes
impairment on par with driving with a blood-
alcohol level of 0.08 percent (University of Utah)

10. Impact of Cell Phone Use on Driving
Performance
 Fail to detect hazards,
 Responds to hazards more slowly
 Expose to risk for longer periods.
 Maintenance of lane position
 Maintenance of an appropriate and predictable speed,
 Maintenance of appropriate following distances,
 Reaction times to changes in the driving environment,
 Judgment and acceptance of safe gaps in traffic, and
 Situational awareness.

11. Dangerously Slowed Reaction Times
• Reaction times are slower when reading or
writing a message.
• Reaction time for drivers trying to compose a
text message increased from 1.2 to 1.6
seconds.
• At highway speeds, drivers can travel more
than a mile while texting.

12. Slowed Reaction Times, cont.
• Slower reaction times result in an increased
stopping distance of three car lengths.
• Could easily make the difference between
causing and avoiding an accident or between
a fatal and non-fatal collision.

13. What Causes This Impairment?
• Increased mental workload required to write a
text message
• Less physical control caused by holding the
phone
• Visual impairment caused by continually
looking back and forth from the phone display
and the road ahead

14. Who Texts and Drives?
• In 2008, 2,002 members of the social
networking website Facebook were asked to
self-report whether they text while driving.
• 45% admitted doing so.
• What could be the Percentage in 2013?????
• We have got more smart Phones in last 5
years…….

15. Solutions

16. • Don’t get into the habit of texting and driving.
• If you already do it, stop. Pull over if you have
urgent business or an emergency.
• Don’t ride with drivers who are texting. Tell
them to stop.
• Concentrate on traffic and other drivers while
you are behind the wheel.

17. Questions and
Suggestions
Thanks
Thank you for being a safe driver