Driving While Distracted (Anyone, Not Just Teens)

A pretty intense PSA was produced in the UK targeting texting while driving. I’ve seen comments by well-intentioned folks suggesting that it is too graphic for teen consumption. I have a hard time understanding their logic. If you haven’t already seen the video, you can see it here:



Utah has also produced a lengthy video about texting while driving that is worth the time it takes to view it.





I’m not a great believer in showing graphic videos to teens as a means of convincing them not to take risks, or drive irresponsibly. Preaching abstinence just doesn’t work very well. That’s why I believe we should be banning all cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle. I also understand that this will probably not happen in my lifetime.

Trinity Noble has developed technology that will only prevent the driver from using a hand-held cell phone while the vehicle is in motion above 15mph. It will still allow calls using blue tooth hands-free units. It requires FCC approval in order to be legally installed in a vehicle.

Until we all realize that driving while distracted is dangerous, and change our behavior, the gruesome collision statistics will continue to pile up. No text message or call is so important that we should be risking the lives of others so that we can handle it. Yet that’s precisely what so many drivers today do, every day. How did we collectively develop such an inflated sense of importance?

Questions for Parents of Teens Getting Ready to Drive

Are you the parent of a teen that’s at that magic age when he/she is eligible to begin driving? Here are a few questions that you should consider.

1. Is he/she mature enough for the responsibility?
This is the most important question that a parent needs to consider. Does your child exhibit sufficient self-control and maturity to handle the responsibility of being in control of a 2,000+ pound missile loaded with 10 to 30 gallons of explosive liquid? If you aren’t comfortable with your answer, then serious discussion between you and your teen should occur before you begin the licensing process.

2. Who will do the training?
Today, there are usually many options available to the parent. I’ll bet that most of us were first exposed to driving in a parking lot or on a quiet residential street by a parent or older sibling. For most, this was just the beginning.

It used to be that most high schools offered driver education courses as an elective; now that is the exception, rather than the norm. These classes were designed around classroom instruction for 30 hours of seat-time. Why 30? Because that was the number of hours required to grant partial credit as an elective course. This has been picked up as the required standard by some states, and by some insurance companies for discount eligibility.

Unfortunately, I have yet to hear from anyone that participated in this type of class that didn’t say they were bored out of their minds while learning very little of practical value. That’s not to say the content was bad, it simply validates studies that rate classroom lectures as the most ineffective teaching method. Check out the DrivingMBA FAQ page for more information on the Learning Pyramid.

A popular option is for parents to take on the responsibility of teaching their teen to drive (~1/3 of teens are taught this way). After all, if my dad could teach me how to drive, why shouldn’t I be able to do the same for my kid? Part of the problem is that both vehicles and roadways, while safer, are far more complex and sophisticated than they were 20 years ago. An NHTSA study of Texas results determined that this was the least effective method of teen driver training, even though the Texas program is one of the most elaborate. Download the study here.

3. How much training will he/she get?
The industry standard is a varied amount of classroom training, ranging from 30+ hours for those schools still adhering to the 1/2 credit concept, to the minimum necessary to adequately understand and retain the rules of the road. This is usually followed by 6 hours of actual road time with an instructor. With the advent of Graduated Drivers License laws, many states require that the parent or guardian attest to a number of practice driving hours with the permit holder prior to licensing.

4. Who will provide the practice time?
Practice time is critical to the development of the new driver. This usually falls on the shoulders of one or both parents. Once the teen has gained some confidence behind the wheel, all driving while the teen is in the vehicle should be done by the teen, unless physical condition makes this unadvisable. The teen has to get exposure to varied conditions and routes in order to really gain meaningful experience. Driving every day to and from school as the only driving practice might serve to meet the minimum requirements, but only means that they are very experienced on that route, and under the same conditions.

5. What kind of vehicle will be available?
If the teen attends a commercial driving school, the likelihood is that the vehicle will be a smaller model. Schools choose these vehicles for economy reasons, but it serves a very different purpose as well. The student is introduced to driving in a vehicle that is easier to control. The transition to driving the family van or SUV or sports sedan is an area where parents need to exercise caution. Start slowly, and make certain that the teen is comfortable with where the corners of the vehicle are when he/she is behind the wheel and in control of maneuvering past that mailbox.

6. What kind of vehicle will he/she be driving after licensing?
Many parents believe that bigger is better/safer. While it might be somewhat safer for the occupant of the vehicle in a collision with another, smaller vehicle, the notion of safety is misplaced. A safer vehicle is one that is within the capabilities of the driver to control its operation. A larger vehicle has a much higher center of gravity, and reacts much differently when a sudden steering or braking maneuver is executed.

There was a school of thought that advocated a large older sedan as the first vehicle. The thinking was that it was inevitable that the teen would experience a collision, so buy something cheap. Older vehicles have less modern safety features, and may encounter mechanical problems, so this is no longer seen as a good idea. Besides, why on earth should it be a given that the teen will be in a collision? Proper preparation just might be a better answer.

7. How will you know he/she is ready to drive solo?
You are no longer on edge and tense in the passenger seat while the teen drives, and you can actually do something other than maintain constant vigil over what is happening. The teen has demonstrated a level of responsibility that allows you to entrust him/her with his own life and the lives of others on the road at the same time. You have discussed and signed a driving contract and have established clear expectations and consequences. The teen is ready.

Could Power-To-Weight Ratio Be The Next Addition To Graduated Driver License Restrictions? Probably Not.

I often remind parents of the huge difference in vehicle and roadway sophistication that has taken place since they first learned to drive. Most any vehicle built before the 1990's had sufficient noise/vibration/harshness issues (remember wind noise at higher speeds?) that told the driver that they might want to be a little more careful as speed increased. Couple that with roads that were slightly less than smooth, and the driver received plenty of sensory feedback.

I've also commented on the continuing increase in power with new vehicles. This article from Autoweek talked about this topic in relation to insurance rates.

The net result is that new drivers today have a much greater ability to get into problem situations faster with less warning signs along the way. They can easily exceed the personal and vehicle limitations governing vehicle control. For this reason, a restriction on vehicle capabilities for inexperienced drivers makes sense.

I was reminded of this when I read this article about Australian Graduated Driver Licensing that is tied to Power-to-Weight vehicle ratios. Some countries in Europe have had this type of restriction for a while, limiting new drivers to slower vehicles until they gain experience.

Given the substantial differences in approach to teen driver training here in the United States, it would be very difficult to add such a restriction here, especially since the requirements are independently mandated by each state.

Ford Motor Company, with their MyKey program, is somewhat addressing the issue by allowing parents to physically impose speed restrictions and providing audio warnings as speed increases. It does not address the temptation of too much power available up to the programmed maximum that can get inexperienced drivers into trouble.

GPS monitoring devices are available that will report on events and speed, but that is after the fact.

The best answer is judicious parental choices in vehicle availability to the newly minted driver that reduce the temptation to "see what it can do".

Lessons To Be Learned From a NM Tragedy

On June 27, 2009, four teens lost their lives in a collision in New Mexico, caused by a drunk driver on the wrong side of the road. Rightfully so, the response has been a call for more efforts to prevent DUI occurrences.

This article gives some details about the crash:

http://tinyurl.com/lzt2wr


What caught my eye in the comments section following the article was the questioning of the role of the parents in potentially avoiding the situation in the first place. The teens were in the first car of a caravan of four vehicles carrying teens to a house party. The time of the collision was around midnight. The driver of the vehicle is listed as sixteen.

Even without the GDL restrictions, a relatively inexperienced driver should not have been on the road with 4 passengers at midnight, with the probability of a return home presumably sometime after 1 or 2 am.

The second thing that caught my eye was the damage to the vehicle:





Clearly, the driver, in a panic situation, swerved to the left to avoid the head-on collision. That is not surprising, but is exactly the wrong thing to do. She obviously also reacted too late, since the oncoming vehicle caught her in the right front quarter.

Had the driver been through our Level 2 simulation training, she would have known that she needed to go to the right, and would have been drilled on the need to get out of the way, rather than stay in lane until it was too late.

Most experts believe that the answer to teen fatalities is further restrictions on teen drivers until they gain sufficient experience and maturity. We train company fleet drivers in defensive driving techniques using this simulator, and about 75% of these experienced (>10 years) drivers either fail to avoid the head-on collision, or subsequently lose control during the avoidance maneuver. Time spent behind the wheel of a vehicle is not the solution.

The value of our simulation training lies in exposure to critical situations, evaluation of initial reaction, and practice of correct response. You simply cannot get that from an online course, in a classroom, or during supervised on-road driving with an instructor.