Stats: Phones, cars are bad mix

Jeff Wilke drove from Fargo, N.D., to Omaha on Tuesday and conducted business on his Blackberry throughout the 6-hour trip.

His secret to texting while going 80 mph down Interstate 29? "You hold the steering wheel with your leg." Wilke, president and CEO of Data Media Solutions and chairman of Jelecos, both local technology companies, wasn't bragging. He realizes that texting while driving isn't safe, especially after listening to a speaker today detail the dangers of drivers' cell-phone use.

"It is the most reckless thing that I engage in," he said.

Wilke was one of more than 120 business and community leaders who heard John Ulczycki, the vice president of communications for the National Safety Council, rattle off statistic after cell-phone statistic:

-- An estimated 100 million-plus people talk on their cell phones while driving.

-- 18 percent of drivers admit to text-messaging while driving.

-- A cell-phone user's reaction times are comparable to a driver with .08 blood-alcohol content.

-- Cell-phone use contributes to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, 120,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths, according to a 2003 study by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis. (Ulczycki noted that the number of cell-phone users has doubled since the study was conducted.)

Hands-free devices don't help, Ulczycki said -- studies have found no difference in cognitive distraction between hand-held and hands-free devices.

Conversations with passengers in your vehicle and cell-phone conversations differ, he said, because passengers share an awareness of what's happening on the road and modulate the conversation based on the situation, he said. Adults with passengers have lower crash rates, he said.

That's not true of teenage drivers, however. And texting drastically reduces teen drivers' reaction times, Ulczycki said.

The cell-phone industry is aware of the risks and is working with the National Safety Council on a public-awareness comapaign, Ulczycki said.

Wilke, the local businessman, said he now is considering banning cell-phone use while workers are driving on company business.

"It's not a matter of ‘if,' it's a matter of ‘when'" a crash will occur because of a driver's cell-phone use, he said.

« Metro/Region

Share