Text & Drive Campaign

The March theme for “WZND Wants U 2 Practice Safe Text” is the science behind this phenomenon. Wake Up Normal hosts Zack and Paige talked to Paul Atchle on Friday, March 8th. Atchley is a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas. He recently published a study on the psychological aspects of texting and driving.

Listen to the full interview below.

Paul Atchley Interview

Entering into the month of March, WZND’s Texting and Driving Campaign is now focusing on “The Science Behind Texting and Driving.”

Did you know that during the daytime, over 10% of drivers on U.S. roadways are talking on their cell phones? Research has demonstrated that driving performance is significantly degraded by these cell phone conversations. Some people may believe that they are great “multitaskers” and have no problem using their phone while driving. It needs to be noted that attention does, in fact, have a limited capacity!

Conventional wisdom suggests that people cannot multitask without performance decrements on one or more of the tasks. According to the National Safety Council in 2010, it is estimated that 28% of all accidents and fatalities on U.S. highways are caused by drivers using cell phones, because the conversations they are having on them lead to a form of inattention blindness, causing drivers to fail to see up to half of the information in the driving environment.

To be fair, we must also look at how there are certain “supertaskers” out there. These “supertaskers” have a strikingly remarkable ability to successfully perform two attention-demanding tasks that over 97% of the population cannot perform without experiencing considerable costs in performance. In the last few generations, technology has placed high value on multitasking ability, but this time scale is too short for any selective advantage to spread through the population. Do not feel that you are a “supertasker” while driving a vehicle! Keep your attention on the road, and not your cell phone.

And remember: WZND Wants U 2 Practice Safe Text. Don’t text and drive.

NORMAL– The largest demographic in the issue of texting and driving is teenagers. Driving schools in the area are often the number one line of defense in getting teenagers educated about the dangers of the issue.

WZND reporter Connor Boyd interviewed one local driving instructor about what her school is doing to get the message to their students.

NORMAL– Texting and Driving is an issue that stretches a number of demographics. High school students are becoming more dependent in technology and seem to have their cell phones in hand 24/7.

Emily Pomorski spoke with Joy Allen, Central Catholic High School Principal, about the issue of texting and driving and how high school students are not the only ones to rely on technology in everyday life.

Texting and Driving Video October

According to the National Highway Safety Administration:

• Texting while driving is 23 times more likely to cause an accident than having an intoxicated driver behind the wheel.
• Texting while driving is ranked as the most dangerous distraction.
• The drivers steering capability decreases by 91% when texting while driving.
• According to the government website, 3,092 people were killed due to distracted driving in 2010.
• People under 20 years of age are more likely to cause an accident due to texting and driving.
• Young adolescents obtain 16% of distracted crashes.
• Sending or reading a text message takes on average of about 4.6 seconds.
• Taking your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds is similar to driving the length of a football field blind at 55 mph.
• Texting and driving is a manual, visual, and cognitive distraction.

This month the WZND news team took a close look at the issue of texting and driving. In this month’s Bird’s I View we interviewed state troopers, and a representative from AAA Insurance about their texting and driving simulators and how they help spread awareness. WZND also spoke with a local driving instructor about how the driver education curriculum has changed with the issue. Finally, Zach Bernard reports on how texting and driving has effected one ISU student. Listen to the full episode by clicking below.

Illinois law bans texting while driving for every individual who operates a vehicle. Cell phone use is also illegal while driving in school zones or in highway construction zones. For drivers under the age of 19, cell phones are banned for both talking and texting.

Illinois is not the only state in the U.S. to ban texting while driving for everyone. Check out the states that also follow suit, and those that do not.

State texting bans across the U.S. Photo courtesy of the National Safety Council