Vermont is aware of the dangers of texting while driving, and if a new program from the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles takes off, teens will learn the danger of texting while driving, too. In Vermont, teens make up 15% of the state’s drivers, but account for 30% of the crashes. Drivers that use phones or text while driving are 400% more likely to make errors, have delayed reaction times, and are significantly more likely to crash. Hence, Vermont’s trying to show students just how distracted they are when they text friends.
What the state does is have teens traverse an obstacle course via golf cart. First, they do it normally. Then, they do it while texting a friend. A ride-along officer scores both rides, so teens can see the dramatic jump in errors, mistakes, and mashed orange cones.
The Turn Off Texting program is making a big difference in Vermont, and it’s spreading to other states. So far, 25 states have anti-texting laws on the books, and more are looking to add them while looking to increase driver awareness. You can visit the official website at TurnOffTexting.com for more information.
i would like to see a ban on all cellphone used by drivers while driving and this is going to make a much difference on the road in terms of crashes. At some point, we have to address that issue when years roll on and we should take the issue of highway safety so seriously and put a law on this (texting while driving should be a crime). Indeed a informative post. More and more people want to share information, as long as we have good controls over that and I think that’s really where the world is going on.
Great comment, Erik, and looks like a great app you’ve got here! I’ll definitely have to check it out. I could use something to wrangle texts I get while driving into something easy to deal with (and I love the autoresponse feature!).
My three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me last fall by a texting driver. It changed me but I don’t hate texting. The way I see it, that would be like hating nightfall – its coming no matter what. 72% of teens text every single day – some over 3000 times a month. The texting drivers I spoke with, including teens and truckers, all said that laws and Big Brother type software devices that “lock down” their phones would not deter them at all. They feel their civil liberties slipping away. So I built a tool called OTTER for the individual to help manage their texting on their terms.
OTTER is a comprehensive text management system for the home, office and certainly, the highway. It has GPS based Parental Control Feature for teen drivers, a GPS Mode for adult who choose to use it and an Auto reply with unlimited customized responses. We are getting 4.5 to 5 star rating from the tech community and great response from teen groups and safety organizations. We have heard of teens using OTTER to schedule their own “texting blackout periods” so they can get some homework done without feeling disconnected from their social network. If a teen uses OTTER like this, then we think they will see the benefit of OTTER’s road safety features. We are not going to stop until change hits our roads and not just our laws. Please give us your feedback.
Best,
Erik Wood, owner
OTTER LLC
http://www.OTTERapp.com