Simulator Shows Danger of Texting Behind the Wheel (from WDTN)
By, Kennan Oliphant
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Many people think they have skills behind the wheel, but when it comes to texting and driving...no one wins. Teens like Katie Glander say texting and driving is quickly becoming a way of life.
"Um, I have seen people texting while driving."
Teen driver Kasidy Muncy admits she's guilty of it.
"I acutally have done it myself now that I have a touchscreen phone I can't do it as much."
According to to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drivers younger than 20 had the highest distracted-driving fatality rate among all age groups last year. The NHTSA said nearly six-thousand people died last year as a result of distracted driving.
How dangerous is it? I found a virtual driving course on line that forces the user to go through gates by pushing a number on the keypad. Once you add the texting part, it all goes awry. I'm hitting gates and can't keep myself in the lane.
You might ask yourself, how realistic is that? When you're in a car you're not trying to use a keyboard or a mouse while you're trying to text and drive at the same time. Instead, I used my blackberry to send a text message to somebody. I thought the familiarity of my own phone would help me out. Unfortunately, I still hit the barriers and could not text successfully.
"Texting and driving is as bad as driving drunk," Jeff Caldwell, a driving instructor at PDS driving school said.
"I mean you just see pictures all the time on the news where people are running into other people because they're paying attention to that phone and not up where they should be."
Muncy says she will not text and drive because she's afraid of the consequences."I'm not paying attention and then if I would hit somebody like that would just be, I wouldn't be able to live with it."
And Glander figures her family will keep her doing the right thing while on the road.
"my grandpa would freak out about it, he's really nervous about it. He'll tell me not to text all the time."
The simulator
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html
Rich's results
I found this to be absolutely nerve-wracking. I took a long time to complete because I purposely tried to focus on the gates and not the cell phone in the beginning of the game. As I tried to figure out what to do to respond I found that I would easily be distracted from the gate numbers.
I don't know if it would have been easier with a regular cell phone than the on screen version, but I can guarantee that I was fully distracted at times.
I never saw the grey lady.
