Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps - NY Times

[TomSea]

Biggest Spike in Traffic Deaths in 50 Years? Blame Apps

The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating an Oct. 26 crash near Tampa that killed five people. A passenger in one car, a teenager, recorded a Snapchat video showing her vehicle traveling at 115 m.p.h. just before the collision.A lawsuit filed in a Georgia court claims a teenage driver who was in a September 2015 crash near Atlanta was using Snapchat while driving more than 100 m.p.h., according to court records. The car collided with the car of an Uber driver, who was seriously injured.

Alarmed by the statistics, the Department of Transportation in October outlined a plan to work with the National Safety Council and other advocacy groups to devise a “Road to Zero” strategy, with the ambitious goal of eliminating roadway fatalities within 30 years.

The Obama administration’s transportation secretary, Anthony Foxx, said that the near-term effort would involve identifying changes in regulations, laws and standards that could help reduce fatalities. That might include pushing for all states to tighten and enforce laws requiring use of seatbelts in cars and helmets on motorcycles, while cracking down on distracted or drunken driving. The effort might also include tougher regulation of heavy trucks, Mr. Foxx said.

Read More At: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/business/tech-distractions-blamed-for-rise-in-traffic-fatalities.html?ref=technology

[Applewood]

It's not the apps.  It's the stupidity of drivers and pedestrians. 

[Oceander]

It's not the apps.  It's the stupidity of drivers and pedestrians. 

Yes, but at a certain point, and for the protection of the rest of us from the consequences of the idiots, things may need to be banned.  For example - an extreme example, I admit - phones may be required to shut down if they're moving more than a certain speed.  The speed can be measured by the cell towers, in conjunction with the phone's own internal systems, and if it exceeds a certain limit, the phone is sent a soft shut-down signal, and only when the service-provider's systems detect that it has slowed down for a sufficient period of time is it sent a power-up signal.

[Smokin Joe]

Helmets on motorcycles are going to stop people from driving like idiots and a$$hole$, just how?

Has anyone noticed that every time there is another 'safety feature' added, it just frees the driver to do something else stupid?

Go back to manual transmissions, steel dashboards, no air bags, no seat belts, and see if they drive the same. Make the radio optional and ditch all the electronic gee-gaws to fiddle with, and just maybe people will look outside (maybe out of boredom) and pay attention to what is going on outside their vehicle.

[Smokin Joe]

Yes, but at a certain point, and for the protection of the rest of us from the consequences of the idiots, things may need to be banned.  For example - an extreme example, I admit - phones may be required to shut down if they're moving more than a certain speed.  The speed can be measured by the cell towers, in conjunction with the phone's own internal systems, and if it exceeds a certain limit, the phone is sent a soft shut-down signal, and only when the service-provider's systems detect that it has slowed down for a sufficient period of time is it sent a power-up signal.

I can actually see when moving at a high rate of speed and using the cell phone might be desirable. If a relative or other person has suffered stroke/heart attack/severe injury but can be moved, drive. Here it will take more time to get an EMS response out in the boonies than it will take to get them to a hospital. They can be there in less time than it takes the ambulance to arrive where it happened. Being able to notify 911 and the hospital while in transit may be helpful, or at least give you the ability to contact dispatch and meet responding EMS part way instead of having the delay of EMS driving out to and back from the scene. Overall, it cuts the time between problem and ER.

There are other times it might be good, or even critical to be able to use that phone on the move.

But, virtually every idiot driver I have encountered was either talking on or fiddling with (texting?) a phone.