NTSB’s 10 Most Wanted List – 2012

Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager
MSC

Each year the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) releases a list of 10 most-wanted safety improvements. The agency’s annual list is intended to increase awareness and support for the most critical changes necessary for reducing traffic accidents.

The following are a few of the advocacy priorities that appear on this year’s list:

Eliminate Distraction in Transportation
The NTSB suggests that states and regulators ban the nonessential use of portable electronic devices that don’t directly support a driving-related task. The agency suggests that manufacturers develop technology that disables portable electronic devices within reach of the driver. They also point out that young drivers are especially likely to use portable electronic devices (such as cell phones) when driving, and that antidistraction campaigns specifically directed at teens are important.

Mandate Motor Vehicle Collision Avoidance Technologies
Technologies such as electronic stability control, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning exist to help improve drivers’ reaction time and aid drivers when an unexpected driving condition occurs. Despite the availability of these and other technologies, some are not required or mandated. The NTSB purports that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) should establish standards and mandate certain technologies as standard equipment in cars and commercial motor vehicles.

Improve the Safety of Bus Operations
The NTSB puts forth that an important step in improving the safety of bus operations is ensuring that professional motorcoach drivers are qualified. Methods of helping ensure that a driver can be considered "qualified" include longer and more comprehensive reviews of their driving history, maintaining higher expectations and standards as far as drivers’ undergoing regular medical exams, and limiting drivers’ hours of service.

In addition to these most-wanted improvements, the NTSB lists safety improvements in areas including aviation, rail, and infrastructure.

Read more about NTSB’s most-wanted safety improvements at the agency's website. 

"Novice Mistakes" and Distracted Driving Among Teen Drivers

Garrick Infanger

Armstrong Forensic Engineers

MSC would like to thank our friends at Armstrong Forensic Engineers for this guest post.

Distracted driving is now a hot topic among both legislators and the press. Should car accidents resulting from texting be treated as a crime? Are anti-texting laws and service announcements effective?

Georgia's July 1, 2010 ban of texting while driving makes it one of 30 states with similar laws. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that there is some debate as to whether texting laws actually increase the rate of accidents as people attempt to text out of sight from police, actually furthering their attention from the roadway.

Utah recently passed a new law that penalizes drivers who text to the same degree as drivers who drink and drive. The New York Times reports, "In effect, a crash caused by such a multitasking motorist is no longer considered an 'accident' like one caused by a driver who, say, runs into another car because he nodded off at the wheel. Instead, such a crash would now be considered inherently reckless."

Even Oprah has gotten in on the debate with a campaign titled the "No Phone Zone." What else leads teen drivers into accidents? Should we be looking at other "novice driving" mistakes?

Tara Parker-Pope looks at teen drivers at her blog "Well":

Teenagers are notoriously bad drivers, accounting for 10 times as many crashes as middled-aged ones. But short of keeping them off the road entirely, is there a way to make their driving safer - for them and for the rest of us?

New research suggests that there is. A nationally representative sample of more than 800 crashes involving teenage drivers shows that almost two-thirds were due not to reckless behavior like speeding or joyriding but to three novice driving mistakes: failing to scan the road, misjudging driving conditions and becoming distracted.

Focusing on these three common mistakes could go a long way in improving teenage driving and reducing fatalities, said an author of the report, Dr. Dennis Durbin, co-director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

With the encouraging news that truck-related fatalities continue to decrease, we can hope the state of teen drivers also improves with time.

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Garrick Infanger writes for the Forensic Engineering Hub, an engineering-focused blog sponsored by Armstrong Forensic Engineers.

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Photo Credit: Stuart Bradford

New Anti-Distracted Driving Rules Announced at the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced at yesterday’s second national Distracted Driving Summit that the federal government is initiating a new rulemaking to limit commercial truck drivers’ use of all electronic devices while hauling hazardous materials, as well as seeking to ban text messaging by all drivers hauling hazardous materials.

These announcements came on the heels of last week’s proposed rulemaking submitted to the White House for final review, which would prohibit all truck drivers from texting while driving. It is likely that this rule will be published in the Federal Register as early as next week, in which case the rule would take effect in late October.

Read more about LaHood's announcements during yesterday's Distracted Driving Summit.

Learn about distracted driving and the summit at DOT's site.

National Two-Second Turnoff Day: Sept. 17, 2010

A lot can happen in two seconds. For example, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, taking your eyes off the road for two seconds doubles your chances of being in a car crash. However, it only takes two seconds to turn off your cell phone before you get behind the wheel.

National Two-Second Turnoff Day takes place tomorrow. The campaign, sponsored by AAA, Seventeen Magazine, and the US Department of Transportation (DOT), urges teens to pay special attention to the risks of distracted driving. Research conducted by AAA and Seventeen found that 86% of male and female teens have driven while distracted, even though 84% admitted they know it's dangerous.

Seventeen Magazine's "Viral Video Challenge,” part of National Two-Second Turnoff Day, is actively helping teens spread the news of the dangers of distracted driving. Winner Emily Langston's anti-distracted driving video, "It Can Wait," will be featured at DOT's 2010 Distracted Driving Summit, in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 2010.

Congratulations to Ms. Langston, AAA, Seventeen Magazine, and DOT for working hard to promote safe driving.

Visit the official US Government website for distracted driving.

Effective July 1: Kansas Safety Belt Law, Georgia Text Ban

Kansas Becomes 31st State to Pass Primary Safety Belt Law
Beginning July 1st, law enforcement officers can stop truckers for not wearing a safety belt in Kansas. Previously, Kansas law considered failing to wear a safety belt a secondary offense; it could only be enforced if the driver was stopped for another infraction, such as speeding. By passing the law, Kansas is eligible for $1 million in federal funds for public safety programs. Read an article by the Wichita Eagle.

Georgia Becomes 28th State to Ban Texting While Driving
Also beginning on July 1st, drivers in Georgia can receive a citation for texting while driving. The law bans sending a text message as well as reading an incoming text. However, Georgia Gov. Sonny Purdue indicated that the law may change in the future because of potentially confusing ramifications in the language. When a cell phone buzzes, the driver may not know whether it is a phone call or a text message without checking the phone. A law enforcement official may interpret checking a phone to be reading a text message. Read an article by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Maryland Bans Handheld Cell Phone Use While Driving; Wisconsin Bans Texting While Driving

Maryland is the latest state to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving. On May 20, Gov. Martin O’Malley signed into law a bill that makes it a secondary offense to be caught using a handheld cell phone while driving. This means an officer can enforce the law only after observing a driver committing another offense, such as running a stop sign. Under the new law, which will take effect on October 1, drivers will be permitted to use a hands-free device for talking.

Wisconsin recently enacted a law banning texting while driving. On May 5, Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a bill that makes it a primary offense to be caught texting on a mobile device while driving. The new law will take effect on December 1. With the Wisconsin ban, 50 percent of states have enacted a ban on texting. Governors Highway Safety Association’s executive director Barbara Harsha said that she expected another 10 to 15 states to act on a texting ban within the next year.

View a comprehensive list of all cell phone- and texting-while-driving bans by state.

Cell phone use while driving and text messaging while driving are just two examples of distracted driving. Learn more about distracted driving.

FocusDriven: Raising Awareness About Distracted Driving

FocusDriven is a national nonprofit organization created by US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the National Safety Council to address the issue of distracted driving. People who talk or text on their cell phone while driving are considered distracted drivers. Distracted drivers can create dangerous situations on the road and have caused an increase in fatal car crashes. The formation of FocusDriven was formally announced last Tuesday.

The mission of FocusDriven is to advocate for victims of motor vehicle crashes caused by people using their cell phone while driving, and also to increase public awareness about the dangers of cell phone use while driving. Increased public awareness could help advance public policies to address distracted driving as well as ultimately lead to the group’s ability to expand their mission to include educational components and technology solutions.

Results of a public opinion poll conducted by Nationwide Insurance show 81% of the public admitting to talking on a cell phone while driving. This statistic, as well as other important information, can be found at FocusDriven’s website.

Additional information can be found at the Department of Transportation’s website on distracted driving.

Learn more about an example of technology aimed at helping individuals avoid the temptation to talk or text while driving--and also aimed at helping businesses enforce policies against distracted driving--at the ZoomSafer website.

Technology and Distracted Driving

June 28th is the last day of the National Safety Council's National Safety Month. Their 2009 campaign has addressed Teen Driving, Fall Protection, Overexertion, and Distracted Driving. Because of MSC's focus on highway traffic safety, I thought this final week of the campaign warranted an additional post.

Distraction is often defined as when a driver focuses his or her attention on something other than the driving task. When this happens, perceiving the nature of a potential roadway hazard and responding to it takes longer.

"New" technologies (cell phones, wireless e-mail, and so on) have received quite a bit of unfavorable attention as potential distractions. However, the real problem is that drivers misuse the technology: they send text messages while driving and have cell phone conversations that are intense enough to create a high mental workload. If we are honest, a) I think we all know better, but b) we all do it anyway, at least occasionally.

Since we can't put the technology-genie back in the bottle (and we wouldn't want to even if we could), and because we generally do a poor job of changing people's driving behaviors, this is an area where we will have to rely heavily on other technologies to assist educators and enforcers in keeping roadways safer.

One great example of engineering technology coming to the rescue is a new product called Zoomsafer. MSC doesn't have any interest in this company, we don't receive any kickback from them, and we haven't studied it ourselves (or seen other peer-reviewed studies of it). However, these folks definitely have the right idea: use technology to assist the user and make his or her experience better and safer.

Zoomsafer may or may not work--I've signed up to be a beta customer so I can find out for myself. And the product is still in its infancy (it's still signing on beta customers). But this is absolutely on the right track: making people's lives better and safer with technology, and then finding an effective way to bring that technology to market.

Distracted Driving: The Final Week of National Safety Month

The final week of National Safety Month focuses on Distracted Driving.

With the increasing number of available in-vehicle technologies, drivers and companies are facing many new challenges. Cell phones, in-vehicle e-mail, and in-cab messaging or routing systems can create large efficiency gains for companies. They can also help drivers stay in touch with friends, relatives, clients, and co-workers while away from home. But the price of these efficiency and quality-of-life improvements can be huge if the the technologies divert attention from the driving task.

As seen in the photo above, there can be plenty of potential hazards on the highway. Technology isn't going away, and it isn't going to become less commonly used; as drivers, managers, and trainers, we will have to find ways to integrate technologies into a safe driving experience. This will mean well thought out and properly enforced policies and driver training that specifically addresses the issue of in-vehicle technology.

Another critical aspect of safely integrating technology is research in the fields of engineering and human performance. Research in these fields is ongoing at many of the top universities in the US, UK, Australia, and throughout Europe.

The NSC offers four tips for mitigating driver distraction:

* If you need to use your cell phone while driving, pull over and put the car in Park.

* Hands-free mode does not make a cell phone safer.

* Avoid driving when fatigued.

* Crash rates for teenage drivers who transport teenage passengers increase with every additional passenger. Limit who rides with your teen!

The NSC sums it up like this: "When driving, keep you mind on the road and your hands on the wheel."