assignment 6/21

Driving + dialing = dangerousTeenage motorists can be distracted by ringing cell phone February 21, 2006By BRAD COOPER The Kansas City StarThe sky was clear. The pavement was dry. Traffic was routine for a weekday afternoon.As the 17-year-old driver exited U.S. 69 in Overland Park, he rolled his pickup as he tried to grab a ringing cell phone from the passenger-side floorboard, police said. He was not badly hurt."There was no reason for him to go off (the ramp) other than he just took it too fast, and that was because he was distracted by the cell phone," said Eric Houston, the Overland Park police officer who investigated the crash last summer.Cell phones and teens are becoming an increasingly dangerous combination on the highway, traffic-safety advocates say. Teens already account for a disproportionate share of traffic fatalities, and wireless phones exacerbate the problem, they say.Eleven states and the District of Columbia have put limits on teens using cell phones while they drive. At least 11 other states have considered such laws, including Michigan, which is poised to ban cell-phone use by drivers younger than 18. There are no such limits in Kansas and Missouri.Now the National Transportation Safety Board is urging other states to pass similar laws for teens learning to drive. "We know that when you're learning a skill, you should not be distracted while you are doing it," said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the safety board. "Anything that takes away from the total focus of learning how to drive is a distraction," he said.Some teens recognize the risk, but others discount the danger that cell phones might pose. They also do not understand why young people should be singled out when wireless phones are as much of a distraction to adults."I don't really think it distracts me," said T.C. Alex, a 15-year-old from Olathe. "I pay extra attention when I'm talking on the phone. I'm looking out my mirror and that kind of thing," he said.He was among a group of teens enrolled in a driver's education class at Olathe South School who recently shared their views about driving and talking on cell phones.Fifteen-year-old Callie Wheeler said she sometimes answered the phone while she was driving but talked only briefly. She said she understood the gravity of driving."I don't want to get into a wreck," she said. "I get distracted enough by the radio."She said she thought it made sense to restrict phones for inexperienced drivers. But lawmakers who lead transportation committees in Missouri and Kansas said they did not think cell-phone restrictions for teens would advance in their states. They said their legislatures appeared to be in no mood to place new curbs on personal freedoms.The recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board comes at a time when people of all ages are using cell phones more frequently while on the road.A federal study found that last year 8 percent of all U.S. motorists, or about 1.2 million drivers, used cell phones while operating their vehicles at any given time.The study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that the percentage of drivers between the ages of 16 and 24 who talked on handheld cell phones increased from 3 percent in 2002 to 8 percent last year.At the same time, cell phones increasingly contribute to crashes in Kansas and Missouri among drivers younger than 21. In that group, cell-phone-related crashes rose 12 percent last year in Missouri and 38 percent in Kansas."The biggest concern for young drivers is their lack of experience," said Lt. John Eickhorn of the Kansas Highway Patrol. "When you add something to the mix on top of their inexperience, it only equates to more crashes with injuries and fatalities."Last year Kansas recorded 260 crashes in which a cell phone was a contributing factor. About a third involved a driver who was younger than 21.In Missouri, about 31 percent of the 1,246 cell-phone related crashes in 2004 involved a driver younger than 21. Authorities said they doubted that statistics fully measured the problem, because most drivers did not readily admit they were talking on a cell phone before a crash.But police reports are laced with examples of how teens wreck when they turn their attentions to cell phones. Consider these:An 18-year-old man struck a car driven by a pregnant woman as he reached to grab a cell phone from his back pants pocket. The woman, who was 26 weeks pregnant, complained of back and neck pain after the September 2004 crash in Overland Park.A 15-year-old girl, driving without her permit at 1 a.m., struck a parked Jeep when she reached to the passenger seat to answer a phone. No one was hurt in the July 2004 crash in Overland Park.As she talked on her cell phone, a 17-year-old girl drove over a curb and through a field before striking a tree last May in Overland Park. The girl said she panicked, hitting the gas pedal instead of the brakes. No injuries were reported.Fifteen-year-old Kaitlyn Tompkins, for one, is nervous about doing anything besides focusing on the road."I don't feel very safe driving right now, because I'm a beginning driver," she said. "I'd rather have all my concentration so I don't hit someone."Still, she has a problem with a government ban. "It's just like speeding," she said. "People are going to do it."Some traffic-safety experts say the safety board's proposal is well-intentioned, but they question its effectiveness."Enforcement is a big problem," said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research organization that is funded by auto insurers. "It's difficult for officers to readily ascertain the age of the driver, and it's difficult to determine if the driver is using a hands-free phone."The wireless phone industry supports efforts to improve highway safety but believes they should focus on all potential distractions."If you single one possible distraction out, you could be doing a disservice by creating a false sense of security that you've taken care of the potential problem," said John Walls, spokesman for CTIA-the Wireless Association."Young drivers face a lot of potential distractions, from playing their music too loudly to other kids in the car to talking on a cell phone to eating. The list goes on and on."Capt. Chris Ricks of the Missouri Highway Patrol said education, not necessarily more laws, is the answer. He said young drivers must recognize that the distraction is just the start of what can go wrong."They don't know how to handle it once they get to a problem," Ricks said.Brian McKearney, 15, said he was aware of the risk."When you're talking, you focus more on the conversation than the road," he said. "There's really no need to talk and drive. If it can wait, let it wait."

travis: he learned from his experience that there is no need to drive and talk on a cell that you should wait it will help you avoid accidents

yaw:traction of tires is gone
pitch:weight is transfered from front to back
roll:vehicle weight is transfered through the side tires so the weight is from left to right
central vision: good for seeing targets and is mostly used to drive
fringe vision:around the central vision 30-36 degrees
pariferal vision: the angle of vision that is good for seeing when cars are coming up beside you
target area: where you are aiming to go
target path: the path traveled to your taget area