A new nationwide survey of drivers has found that while a majority of them say talking on a cell phone or texting while driving is a very serious threat or a significant danger, many of them still make calls and do texts while driving.
Even with laws that prohibit talking or texting on a cell phone.
The survey was done by the Triple A’s Foundation for Traffic Safety as part of a study into how to reduce driving distractions that they are the cause of at some 390-thousand crashes and about 35-hundred deaths every year.
This new study blames some of the problem on the manufactures of vehicles; specifically the high tech computerized the touch screens, buttons and voice and gesture commands built into many new cars, trucks and SUV.s now.
The study's author, David Strayer, says that many drivers assume that if the auto makers put a device in their car that can be used while moving, then it must be safe. But he says that’s simply not true.
He says they found that crashes increases when drivers take their eyes off the road for just two seconds. The average time to read a text is 4 ½ seconds.
So they’re urging the people who make the cars to do more to protect the people who drive their cars by locking out the ability to use them while driving.
And of course the Triple A urges drivers to be more responsible on their own not to do the things that distract…that put themselves and others at greater risk.
(Photo credit Getty Images)