California drivers, feel free to text away -- as long as you don't use your fingers.
Much to the chagrin of many motorists disturbed by the growing problem of distracted drivers, a new state law kicks in Tuesday that will allow anyone behind the wheel to receive and send a text message as long as they are using technology designed to allow for a fully voice-operated, hands-free operation.
"A bad idea," said Eric Nordman, a 54-year-old mechanical engineer from Palo Alto. "There are enough distracted drivers out there without adding to the problem."
Proponents say ever-changing technology makes the new law inevitable, and they say it's better than having drivers type messages from handheld phones with their eyes off the road.
A driver going 55 mph while typing can cover the length of a football field without looking up, studies have shown.
The texting change is one of several new traffic laws to go into effect in 2013, including one setting standards on the use of red-light cameras and another allowing drivers to park free at locations where meters are broken.
The new rule on texting has caught the attention of safety advocates from California to Washington, D.C.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has called cellphone use and texting "a national epidemic" and wants automakers to get behind voluntary government efforts to ensure dashboard technologies increasingly being added to cars won't distract drivers.
LaHood
opposes any form of texting or telephone conversation while driving. He urges people to put their phones out of reach.The National Transportation Safety Board has called for a ban on cellphone use by drivers, including the use of hands-free phones. Most studies show hands-free conversations are just as distracting to drivers as those involving handheld phones.
The new California law prohibits texting while driving unless it's done on an "electronic wireless communications device (that) is specifically designed and configured to allow voice-operated and hands-free operation to dictate, send, or listen to a text-based communication." That appears to mean texting with the iPhone's Siri or Android's Google Now is OK, because the law allows drivers to touch a device to activate or deactivate it or to enter a telephone number.
"This clarifies some of the gray areas in previous laws," said spokesman Chris Cochran of the state Office of Traffic Safety. But he said it's preferable not to use cellphones while driving at all, as "research has shown that the conversation itself is dangerous due to inattention blindness and the brain's tendency to move functions needed for driving over to the conversation."
The
(Andrew Lucas, Orange County Register)
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 5,474 people were killed and an estimated 448,000 were injured in 2009 in accidents that involved distracted driving -- about 16 percent of all traffic deaths.Questions posed to a dozen drivers revealed that all think it's unwise to allow texting while driving, even with a hands-free gadget.
"The law doesn't reduce or eliminate the mental distraction," said Tim Hyde, of San Jose, whose son was hit by a texting driver at the Highway 85-87 interchange. "But being as pragmatic as I am, I know there will never be a way to legislate that away, as it would be virtually undetectable and unenforceable."
Added Sue Fikes, a 70-year-old retired junior high math teacher from Palo Alto: "Who needs to do texting of any kind while driving?"
Contact Gary Richards at 408-920-5335.
Source: http://www.dailynews.com/traffic/ci_22275963/new-law-texting-hands-free-devices-will-be?source=rss
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Dave Kerpen is the founder of?Likeable Local,?an integrated software solution that allows small businesses to create, enhance and manage their social media presence. We founded Likeable Local this year as a spin-off of Likeable Media, a highly successful social media marketing firm for big businesses, which has a fully developed and deployed product that integrates with Facebook and Twitter. The software is sold on a subscription basis, and is already being used by a growing customer base in its initial vertical, dentists, as a result of our strategic partnership with Henry Schein. My first book, Likeable Social Media, a New York Time bestseller about social media marketing for small businesses, reminded me of my strong passion for the small businesses sector. Likeable Social Media was a start to helping small business with their social media marketing but it wasn?t enough. My first book proved that small businesses were looking for social media help and guidance. Likeable Local will enable many thousands of small businesses to grow thanks to social media.
Likeable Media was started after my wife, Carrie and I decided to get married in 2005. We decided to get married at a baseball stadium and use our marketing backgrounds to create a promotional event and offset the costs of an expensive New York wedding. The Brooklyn Cyclones agreed to let tus get married at home plate after a game, 1-800-Flowers.com supplied us with flowers, Smirnoff provided alcohol, Entenmann?s added desserts, and David?s Bridal sponsored the gowns. In July 2006, Carrie and I said our vows in front of 500 friends and family members and 5,000 strangers. We raised $100,000 from sponsors to cover the cost of the wedding, as well as $20,000 to give to the MS Society. Not only was this a dream wedding, but it was a dream promotion: ?we generated $20 million worth of earned media for our sponsors. A few weeks later, we started getting calls from vendors asking what was next. Since we couldn?t get married again, we decided to start a company instead.