Web Gadgets And Texting: Primary Causes Of Distracted Driving

By Author: Marty Vergel Baes
Total Articles: 413
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The US government particularly the Department of Transportation takes the issue of distracted driving more seriously compared before. This is because the number of accidents caused by distracted driving continues to increase. The worst thing is that most of these accidents caused injuries and fatalities to vehicle drivers and occupants despite the fact that most car makers are trying to produce safer vehicles for car finders who are about to purchase their own vehicles either on cash basis or through auto financing.

Due to this, some of the US government agencies such as the DOT as well as the NHTSA assessed some of the cases of distracted driving which resulted to accidents. These assessments pointed out some of the most common reasons for the driver’s lack of focus in driving. Among the most common reasons that they have identified are texting while driving and trying to connect to the web while travelling.

Given this, DOT Secretary Ray LaHood started to oppose the idea of installing network gadgets and “media feeds” ...
... on vehicles as a way of attracting new car finders and increase some of the auto makers’ sales. LaHood and some of his National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) underlings are trying their best to change the latest trend of installing such gadgets on most vehicles’ in-car technology by looking for ways to link the effects of such devices to issues regarding car safety.

Aside from this, LaHood tries to persuade car makers to join the campaign against distracted driving by launching their own efforts of advising car drivers to refrain from composing, sending, and reading text messages while driving. LaHood’s appeal was then answered by car makers such as Subaru and BMW by producing advisories and reminders aimed at persuading drivers to follow their advices. Both of these car makers started producing commercials and similar media strategies to call the attention of the driving population.

However, LaHood’s goal of curbing the production of more vehicles with built-in web gadgets is viewed to be quite impossible since a number of car makers such General Motors have started producing and selling vehicles with these types of instruments as part of their in-car systems.