Distracted Driving Crusade Hurts Telcos

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

The Crusade against distracted driving is taking its toll – on the telcos: “State laws that mandate use of hands-free devices when talking on a mobile phone behind the wheel may have cut handheld device usage in half over the past year,” reports Edmunds.

A report released by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) talks about a bloodbath caused by cell phones: As much as 30 percent of recent car crashes involved someone who was distracted by using a cell phone, texting “or some other activity that pulled the driver’s attention away from the road.” Allegedly, “distracted-driving accidents killed almost 5,500 people and injured another half-million people in the U.S. in 2009. About one in six fatal accidents that year was caused by a distracted driver,” reports Edmunds.

Expect draconian measures against free speech (handheld, behind the wheel): NHTSA says that Connecticut and New York State crackdowns on handheld mobile-phone use and texting behind the wheel cut distracted driving by at least a third, “indicating that increased law enforcement and public-service announcements likely decrease traffic fatalities stemming from distracted driving.” Not to mention the revenue from the tickets written.

Soon, there will be a paradigm-shift for “cell phones.” As in behind – well – bars.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • MrBostn MrBostn on Aug 12, 2011

    Stanza Wagon 4WD.

  • Ddr7 Ddr7 on Aug 12, 2011

    There is not even one day that I'm not coming across more than one driver using a cell phone, I don't even need to look at the driver, they move slowly from lane to lane and then back, they drive way too slow in comparison to the traffic flow, they will not move when the light change to green. I just wish there was a crackdown on cell phone use every single day and to treat it as DUI not just fine, I just don't understand the difference between the two.

  • Slow kills Slow kills on Aug 12, 2011

    This article would lead one to believe that the criminally negligent driver was actually NOT involved in a crucially necessary use of the cellular telephone. Surely one is not suggesting that drivers are risking their livers and ours for utterly frivolous conversations?

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