Based on the agenda for the second national Distracted Driving Summit, scheduled for next Tuesday, September 21, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., the news from California was likely not a surprise to officials at the U.S. Department of Transportation, who are exploring ways for employers to contribute in the effort to combat distracted driving. Among the speakers joining Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood at the summit will be his colleague, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who will address distracted driving as an issue of occupational safety.

AAA’s new study adds to an increasing body of evidence that texting behind the wheel remains a serious, and growing, challenge to road safety. For example, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of a study that found nearly 50% of adults who text admit to having done so while driving.

“The AAA Southern California report combined with recent research from Fresno State University, Pew and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety highlights the complex nature of the distracted driving problem and questions the effectiveness of current laws. Further, this important data reinforces the need for corporate America to proactively adopt technology that promotes safety and protects companies from risk and liability stemming from employee use of mobile phones while behind the wheel of a car,” said Matt Howard, CEO of ZoomSafer.

Innovations in technology provide employers with a simple way to more effectively engage wtih the distracted driving problem, without sacrificing the productivity gained by mobilizing their workforce. “As a leading provider of wireless fleet management services, we understand the important role that technology plays to help modify human driving behavior,” said Keith Schneider, president and CEO of Networkfleet. “We’re excited to integrate ZoomSafer with our telematics solution so our customers can simultaneously monitor and manage fleet vehicles while promoting safe, legal and responsible use of mobile phones.”

Some employers have been quick to take advantage of tech innovations to help manage employee cell phone use. Bob Stanton, Director of Polk County Fleet Management, saw adding policy enforcement software as a simple way to enhance existing fleet safety standards. “We are committed to improving safety here at Polk County. When we learned about ZoomSafer’s ability to prevent distracted driving, we knew it was something we wanted to try. Their integration with our existing Networkfleet telematics system made the decision even easier.”

Added Keith Lucier, Director of Network Support at Florida-based Girard Environmental, “We are very concerned about the dangers of distracted driving. When we found ZoomSafer software, we knew we had to implement it. We use it with success on all of our corporate-issued phones to prevent distracted driving.”

I’m excited to announce that ZoomSafer team members will be exhibiting at the Distracted Driving Summit next week. I hope all of our fellow attendees take the opportunity to visit us in Booth #17 for a live demonstration of our innovative safe driving software.

Here’s how you can get in on the action now, and also during the summit itself:

• On the day of the summit, Tuesday, September 21, plan to watch the live webcast. Just visit http://www.distraction.gov, and click on the link at the top of the page.
• Send your questions to DDSummit@dot.gov between now and Monday, September 20. To help make sure your question is answered, first review the agenda, available at http://distraction.gov/2010summit, and then indicate in your message which panel you’d like to see address your question.
• Check Sec. LaHood’s official blog, Fastlane, during the summit for live blogging updates.  They’ll also be tweeting highlights and tips at StopDistraction.
• Have your own Twitter account? Join the conversation by using the hashtag #d2summit in your tweets – and search for that tag to see what others are saying.  The D2Summit staff will also display tweets with that tag in their live blogging.

I’m thrilled that the DOT is working so hard to keep the summit an open, dynamic forum by actively encouraging everyone to join in.  I’ll also  be at the summit on Tuesday, and am looking forward to blogging and tweeting live myself.  Distracted driving is a complex behavioral issue that continues to vex and perplex us.  The more ideas about how to solve this problem we can share, discuss, and evaluate, the better for everyone.

Not able to make it to Washington?  Don’t worry – you’re still invited.  Catch the live webcast at http://www.distraction.gov for to-the-minute action.  Also, the DOT wants to hear from you now.  If you have a question you would like to see addressed on Tuesday, send it to ddsummit@DOT.gov by Monday, September 20th.  Make sure to indicate which summit panel the question is for.

One of my top questions has to do with driver’s education. Young drivers have been much maligned as the chief culprits of distracted driving -yet 40% of adults admit to texting while driving, nearly equal to the proportion of teens who do.  How can we expect the next generation of drivers to develop safe, responsible habits if they have such poor role models?  Virginia recently launched a pilot program requiring parents to attend driver’s ed classes with their kids.  I can’t wait to see if increased parental involvement in the classroom has a positive effect on improving driver performance – of teens AND their parents.

What are your questions for the D²Summit?

Texting  is fast becoming the 21st century’s dominant form of communication. But is something being lost in translation? One CNN.com commenter sums it up with this wisecrack: “Year 2125 –‘I remember my grandparents used to be able to make noises come out of their mouths!’” Columnist Mike Carrozzo likewise worries that rather than enhancing communication, texting is slowly eroding interpersonal bonds. Says Carrozzo, “I fear that text messaging is slowly impairing my ability to hold a decent conversation…I had to find out if technology was indeed impairing my social skills.” Carrozzo embarked on a three-day experiement to break his texting habit, which he details in this month’s issue of Connected World magazine. Every time he received a text, Carrozzo followed up with a phone call to the sender.

Carrozzo cites a separate Pew report that found that the number of teens who text on a daily basis had risen from 38% to 54% in eighteen months.  His little experiement, “coupled with the PEW research report, got me thinking about whether or not we as a society truly understand the impact of text messaging or instant messaging, or even email for that matter.”  I don’t think we do yet understand the impact short-form instant communication (texting, emailing, tweeting) has had on us as society.  Anecdotes from college professors shocked to be asked for extensions on major papers or projects via terse, often rude, emails abound.  Worse, the number of people who admit to texting while driving is shocking – 4 out of 10 adults say they have texted behind the wheel.  More than 40% of adults say they’ve been a passenger while a driver has used a cell phone in a dangerous way.

Texting is a wonderful innovation, and serves many useful purposes.  And yet – it has its downsides.  Next time you want to reach out to a friend or colleague, why not call, or better yet – make a date to speak in person.  And if you have to text?  Please don’t do it from behind the wheel.

If you have a Blackberry and plan to attend the distracted driving summit — please visit www.zoomsafer.com and try our FREE software and let us know if you’re less distracted and more focused when you drive.

Does this train of thought even hint at your reality behind the wheel?

Buckle up – put in drive – and away we go.

This is going be a great ride – tons of time to chat and get some work done along the way.  Oops! Hold on I just got a text message – be right back.  Screech!!!  Wow – that was a little too close!  Oh wait – just a minute – I hate that song – gotta switch playlists.  I don’t even know why I put that song on my iPod.  OK I am back – just another interruption UGH!

But I can handle all this and still focus on the road – I have been driving for years (texting for two – but I am catching up on that skill).  Where was I?  Oh yes – distracted driving, yea we all do it – it is just those OTHER drivers can’t handle it!  They slow down.  Speed up.  Swerve.  Miss their exit.  THEY really need to get off the phone!

I know, I know — this couldn’t be you! Is this rambling on and on getting on your nerves?  Or can you relate – well maybe not YOU but you have a friend or a friend of a friend that can?  The instant communication world that we are now in has brought with it a risk that just is not worth that last text or message check.

It’s time we all just hang up and drive!  The fact that you do not get involved in a car crash and/or survive a car crash is not just an accident.  Every day each of us make very conscience decisions about our behind the wheel activities. We all can take simple steps to improve our safety and prevent crashes.

I have personally been Zooming Safer since the ZoomSafer Beta launch and have noticed how not even hearing the phone ring or getting a message notification has helped me focus more on the road.  This is a great tool that I recommend to all drivers.

Sincerely,

Sandy Spavone, Executive Director, NOYS

National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) is a coalition of national organizations, business and industry leaders, and federal partners that focus on youth health and safety. NOYS empowers youth to turn information into action and create youth led solutions to youth health and safety topics. Many NOYS members offer programs, products, and projects for youth to use in their peer to peer education efforts to address distracted driving. NOYS is addressing distracted driving by empowering youth with tools to support their youth led efforts. Join us at www.noys.org

Here’s the scary summary:

• 11% of Twitter users admitted they’re accessing social media while driving, compared to 5% of other social media users.
• 29% of Twitter users claim they had accessed social media from a car at least once before.
• 40% of Twitter users access it on their mobile (not the web)
• 46% check Twitter daily
• 24% of users have either stopped tweeting, or never tweeted once after signing up.

Courtesy of Crowd Science the graphic below shows Twitter usage while driving.

So let me get this straight, Maine. The only way you can get in trouble for texting, talking on a cell phone, watching DVD’s on your laptop while driving and basically doing whatever the heck you want to is to drive very badly or get into an accident? Huh? What about prevention?

We need to admit it, waaaaaay too many drivers have a God complex. “I am great at multitasking in the car…I can eat and text at the same time while I drive, I’m good at it…I send emails to clients on my laptop driving all day and I’ve never had an accident…It only happens to BAD drivers, not me…  Ask a few people in your office, and I’m sure you’ll get a few responses just like those. Trouble is, it is usually those drivers that become the distracted driver statistic. You’ve heard the saying, “There’s always a first time!” Tell that to the single mom who was killed and left 3 kids motherless because you were overconfident in your “driving-while-doing-everything-else-too” abilities. And try explaining it to your boss when you report that company car accident you’ve just caused. Hope the car isn’t a total loss because you might have a job loss.

Sen. Bill Diamond, who sponsored the legislation in Maine, said the it “focuses on what we really want to get, and that is the end result — any distracted driving. … If someone is eating a hamburger, tending to a baby in the back seat or texting, and they show signs of being distracted, and something happens — whether they go through a stop sign, follow too close, go too slow, any of those things — then the distracted driving kicks in.”

He isn’t quoted though mentioning the serious traffic violations that can happen as a result of driving while distracted. I guess maybe he is going to just HOPE that the infractions will be minor instead of realizing that it isn’t really fair to the victims to assume that it will be so.

Prevent distracted driving instead of dealing with it after the fact.

While we at Jotto Desk want the world to know about our laptop mount supplies and our safe driving solution that can prevent laptop related distracted driving called ScreenSafe, our message of preventing distracted driving is one of our most important.

Here is a link to a public service announcement to prevent texting while driving from Wales. This PSA is not designed to be shocking so that people will simply talk about texting while driving, it was created to shock people so that they would never use their phones while driving again. Ever.

I’m not even sure if “shocking” is a proper way to describe this video. When I watched it I could imagine this happening to my car, with my kids inside. We’ve all had near misses while driving and thought to ourselves, “Whoa, that would have been a bad accident!”

This video takes that thought a step further and shows you what the consequences can be. Everyone of driving age should see this PSA to get a sense of the urgency to prevent distracted driving.

Driving while distracted is not just a catchphrase of the moment, it isn’t a joke. It is REAL and is PREVENTABLE. Put down the phone, turn off the laptop and just drive.  Please.