‘FocusDriven’ Advocacy Group Forms to Fight Distracted Driving | Seattle Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Lawyer

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We have been frequently discussing the dangers of driving while distracted here on Straight Talk Law. Just yesterday the National Safety Council announced that 1.6 million auto accidents a year are caused by individuals using their cell phones while behind the wheel. Among those 1.6 million are many Seattle auto accidents. According to the report the majority of these accidents are caused by people talking on their phones, a total of 1.4 million crashes. The remaining 200,000 are caused by the drivers who are texting on their phones while driving. In summary, a disturbing one quarter of car accidents in the United States are caused by distraction from cell phones.

These statistics were released on the same day that the organization ‘FocusDriven’ was formed. Jane Froetscher, the president and CEO of the National Safety Council, and Ray LaHood, the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary, announced the forming of the advocacy group ‘FocusDriven.’ This organization will work their hardest in communities across the country to fight and put a stop to distracted driving, including Seattle, Washington. The group’s board consists of five members who have lost loved ones to drivers who were distracted by their cell phones. Hopefully, these new groups will increase public awareness of the problem and lead to a decrease in Seattle auto accidents and Seattle personal injury claims (link to the auto accident page).

FocusDriven will push their movement in the coming months as the Oprah Winfrey Show will feature FocusDriven on a future episode, and National Public Radio’s ‘Car Talk’ will partner with the group to create a new website. The organization says that their goal is to “make the use of cell phones behind the wheel as socially unacceptable as drunk driving.”

Straight Talk Law reminds you to please drive safely and refrain from using your cell phone while driving at all times.

This information is provided by www.straighttalklaw.com, where you can order free books on Washington auto accidents, auto insurance, and other valuable legal information, offered as a public service by Jason Epstein and his law practice in Seattle, Washington.

One Response to “‘FocusDriven’ Advocacy Group Forms to Fight Distracted Driving | Seattle Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Lawyer”

Mouhamad A. Naboulsi Says:
January 15th, 2010 at 5:28 am
The National Science Foundation is intentionally avoiding data that can decrease and possibly eliminate these deaths. Their focus on banning use of technology in the vehicle, (throwing out the baby with the water), is the dangerous distraction here and it is distracting the rest of the country from finding a technical solution that can modulate the use of the phone with safe driving.

When I heard what the president founder had to say about the distraction, It was easily noticeable that she is confusing manual and visual distraction (True cause of cellular phone accident) with the proposed cognitive distraction as promoted by the NSC.

The cause of distractions is having a phone to the ear which causes the zone out effect that the NSC refers to as the Cognitive Distraction. All the research referenced by the NSC uses ear pieces which has the same effect as holding the phone to ones ear minus the hand held confusion. During the National Driver Distraction Summit, the NSC and all attendees were made aware of Dr. Amit Almor Univ. South Carolina research which shows that the direction of the sound affects the Cognitive Distraction, but they continue to choose to ignore it. Even people that make money out of selling ear pieces (One of the largest makers of Earpieces in France, Parrot,) already stopped producing them because they recognized their dangers.

Hands Free with the right technology is great and will reduce and even eliminate the accidents the NSC is worried about. 1st: The phone should not be handled manually and should be docked to a special cradle. 2nd The cradle will monitor the vehicle to determine if the driver is in a critical situation, e.g. passing or breaking or turning hard before it allows a call to come through. This part alone eliminate 44% of accidents. 3rd, the sound should come at the driver from the windshield so they do not have to picture the caller in their head. Lastly, to answer hang up and dial are handled remotely from the steering wheel using a smart toggle sensor with an audible menu so the driver does not have to look at anything.

This technology exists and is available on http://actplace.net. If we can make it safe, why ban it? What is really behind the NSC zealous attack on the cell phone that is making them loose sight of their true goal?
Mouhamad A. Naboulsi, President, Applied Computer Technologies, Inc.