Survey: 26 percent admit to texting while driving

If you're taking a car trip this Memorial Day weekend, you may feel safest driving in Arizona, but you may want to steer clear of Tennessee.

A survey just released by mobile application vendor Vlingo says 26 percent of mobile phone users questioned admit to DWT, or driving while texting. The highest number of offenders are in Tennessee, with 42 percent of people saying they text behind the wheel, while Arizona drivers came in lowest at 18.8 percent.

Driving while texting is now fully banned in seven states as well as Washington, D.C., and partially banned in a select few other states. But it's not just auto drivers who pose a threat. Earlier this month, a 24-year-old Massachusetts subway operator rammed his train into the one ahead of him, sending almost 50 people to the hospital. According to investigators, the man later admitted to authorities he had been texting with his girlfriend while operating the train.

"In just one year, the public conversation about the issue of DWT has escalated, particularly in the wake of some high-profile accidents," said Dave Grannan, CEO of Vlingo. "Texting is such an integral component of our daily lives, and the cautionary tales about DWT danger have not stemmed the tide. We predicted last year that this problem would get worse, and it has since more people are texting."

Eighty-three percent of the people surveyed said they feel texting while driving should be illegal. But 40 percent of those questioned would OK DWT with the proper safety precautions, such as voice-activated commands. Further, 70 percent would use voice technology to speak and listen to incoming messages as opposed to typing and reading.

However, a study conducted last year from Carnegie Mellon University found that just listening to cell phone messages can impair a driver's ability to concentrate on the road.

The Vlingo survey uncovered other trends based on age. Almost 60 percent of people ages 16 to 19 and 49 percent of those in their 20s admit to texting while driving. Among people in their 50s, 13 percent said they have texted behind the wheel.

The 2009 survey released on Wednesday was the second annual one that Vlingo has commissioned. Survey results were based on responses from 4,816 people living in the continental U.S. Vlingo makes a voice-activated application for mobile phones, so one can argue that it may have a vested interest in the results. However, the company says the survey was conducted by an independent research firm named Toluna.

[myles taylor]

Necessity is the mother in invention. If we wanted to, we could pour money into the research to create an infrastructure of cars that were self-driving, at least in the cities. It's not like it can't be done and that we don't have the technology. I think it's a necessity, with traffic accidents and the like going on.

[atici]

Please pour your own money not the taxpayers'. Clearly money can solve things. And we can send people to mars. The question is if the money consumed would create more happiness elsewhere.

[SIGHUP]

My wife does it all the time. It drives me crazy. She got mad one day when she saw someone reading a book while driving on the highway. I ask her how that was different then her txting while she drives.

[ckh1272]

I am not saying that you should do this to your wife, but 99.9% of the people who text while driving, should be brained with a mace!! Drastic, I know, but you think it would be common sense NOT to text while driving. Why don't we just go ahead and write a novel while driving, while we're at it. WHHEW!! Now I feel better.

[redwall_hp]

At least reading is a mentally-stimulating exercise. Sending SMS messages about mundane things isn't going to do anything but give you RSI.

[sartor1]

The statistics listed on texting while driving are indeed alarming and frightening! What the heck is going on in a person's life that they find it so darn important to risk their and other's lives by texting while driving! How many people will have to die or have their lives ruined due to extreme injury in an accident caused by texting while driving before something is done to stop it? Geesh! Put down the phone, and Drive your frigging car!

[Dalkorian]

They are more important than you or I, therefore they have the RIGHT to kill us both while texting to their friends about last nights dinner date.

What's sick is we can't protect ourselves with equally deadly force. Maybe if people started shooting back they would get it.

Maybe.

[Stormspace]

Like anything else including adjusting the radio, a driver must use good judgment while operating a vehicle. Texting or changing the radio station in heavy traffic while moving is not a good thing, but neither should be banned. Maybe distraction free zones should be established by each state instead.

[catch23]

Texting is one hell of a lot different then adjusting a radio. The level of distraction away from what you are doing are nowhere near each other.
To compare the two together like that is disingenuous at best, an outright idiotic lie at worst.

[redwall_hp]

SMS messages *in general* should be banned. We have email, me have IM. There is no need for people to willingly pay astronomical rates for a shoddy protocol.

And "texting" is not any where near the same thing as adjusting the radio. You don't need your eyes to adjust the radio (maybe if you need to glance at the dial for a fraction of a second). Sending an SMS requires your full attention, when your full attention should be on the road.

[d3vildog69]

Really SMS in general should be banned? Are you an idiot? First it is a form of email since each phone has its own email address. Such as [e-mail].

Secondly SMS is how alot of people choose to communicate including myself because i hate talking on phones. I do it all day at work, and i despise regular email. Stop living in the past.

[tech_crazy]

Wooaah, the protocol is not shoddy, the carriers are milking the customers. In fact, SMS is a very efficient protocol that uses bandwidth that would have otherwise been wasted and hence essentially free to the carriers. It is their greed and the easy money that they have been upping the rates. Heck, my SMS charges from T-Mobile have gone from 5c/msg in 2004 to 20c/msg now. Absolutely no justification for any increases. This shames inflation when in fact network costs have gone down with time. I don't text at all and would suggest to everyone to beat the carriers at their game - avoid SMS, send e-mails or IM instead, if you don't want to call. But don't pay the suckers.

[Dalkorian]

Personally I have no problems with text messaging, nor do I have problems with drunk people. That doesn't mean I think either belong behind the wheel of a car though.

[Stormspace]

There are so many things that compete with a drivers ability to focus on the road and if we start plinking away at them by creating laws that forbid them pretty soon all we will be able to do is look straight forward and drive. This is an overreaction and I realize that while I cannot text without glancing at the keypad, there are others that can. And for those of you adjusting your radio, you obviously have not been in the car with a teenage girl that changes the station or advances the song every couple of minutes. As for reading a text message it's really no different than glancing at a GPS or a speedometer. As I said, a driver has to use good judgement in order to be a safe driver. This doesn't need to be legislated.

[ballmerisanape]

Around a year ago.. a semi-truck slammed into a line of cars waiting on exit at rush hour... It was found that the diver, who was going around the speed limit, was texting on his phone at the time. The cars he literally ran over.. were just sitting there. The exit in question is located at the top of a gradual hill.. so had he been watching the road.. he would have seen the traffic from at least 5 miles away.

[funkyboot]

5 miles away? At 60 MPH that would mean the driver didn't look up once in 5 minutes. At 30 MPH it would mean the driver didn't look up from the wheel once in 10 minutes. I have a feeling you're exagerating a bit.

I'm sorry, but if the driver didn't look up to see the traffic in front of them once in 5 minutes, they would have driven off the road way prior to ever having made the five miles to the exit at the top of the hill.

I'm not condoning texting, but enough with the hyperbole. It's dangerous, and lots of people do it. Now think of this, if 26% are admitting to it, how many are doing it and telling the pollsters that they never have.

[ballmerisanape]

Your right.. as I was driving the route the day I posted this.. I realized 5 miles was a big exaggeration. It's actually a little over a mile.

[hpbills]

I've had enough trouble trying to dial a number manually into my phone while driving. Texting could pull a person's attention away from the road for even longer. It could only take 2 or 3 seconds to find that your airbag has deployed, your car is total and you are possibly injured ... and short while later, possibly dead.

[Dalkorian]

Unfortunately, your likely to kill others - maybe more likely to kill others than yourself. But at least you got to text your friend about last nights TV episode!

[renGek]

All these phones with accelerometers should just disable texting while the phone is in motion within a speed range. I'm over simplifying it but you get the idea.

Its just going to get worse because the young ins are already training themselves to be as obnoxious as they can with cell phones. So they will grow up to be obnoxious adults. Worse, they will have disposable income later and be even more obnoxious.

[tech_crazy]

Seriously a very good idea. Only hitch is that the phone wouldn't know if you are driving or are a passenger.

[Dalkorian]

Better than my idea - consider every cell phone a deadly weapon pointed at you and respond with deadly force. Hey, if you're going to risk MY life for some idiotic phone call, I should have the right to defend myself with equally deadly force.

[Michichael]

Ok, seriously texting by idiots should be banned while driving. I do text while driving on occasion, but I use good judgment and sense in doing so. I spend more time checking my mirrors than I do reading a text message because I know how to glance-read. I also know how to type by touch.

When I read a text I read it in the process of checking my mirrors - when I respond, my eyes never once leave the road. I maintain good awareness of my surroundings, and haven't once gotten in an accident or close call by texting while driving - it's a matter of common sense and responsibility. Making laws that restrict my ability to maintain communication streams with people, especially since as IT 90% of my job is responding to people via text or e-mail, because some people are retards is not the answer.

Society in general is going down the hole because of these "babysitter" laws. Laws that are a complete waste of money, time, and resources when people have better things to do. I mark these laws on par with laws requiring "Caution: Hot" on coffee cups.

[Dalkorian]

by Michichael May 20, 2009 1:39 PM PDT
Ok, seriously texting by idiots should be banned while driving. I do text while driving on occasion, but I use good judgment and sense in doing so.

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I drive when I'm so drunk I can barely remember what happened, but I use good judgement and sense in doing so. And I bet you can't see the idiocy of your remarks even yet.

Loser. I hope you don't kill anyone else but yourself.

[vasdrakken]

This is one of the things NJ and Cali have gotten right, if you are texting talking or phone ect.. while driving you can be pulledover and given a ticket. If you have to make a phone call or text someone pull over on the shoulder do it then start driving again.

[Michichael]

Yeah, go go babysitter laws!

[clashboard]

I believe texting is just like any other skill and some people are more capable than others. I know people who can text one handed without having to look at their dialpad or qwerty keyboard while keeping their eyes on the road.

Then I know people who freak me out by doing the simplest tasks like changing the radio station or adjusting the climate control... I'm on edge whenever I ride with my aunt and she starts fiddling around with the touchscreen in her Acura MDX.

But regardless if a driver is capable enough to drive and text (or fiddle around with the touchscreen) I do agree with the anti-texting laws. It's better to be safe than sorry.

[Super_man1]

some drivers can text and be fine but generally people turn into swerving idiots when they have any kind of distraction. Driving while texting can lead to some serious accidents like these: http://www.newsy.com/videos/texting_and_driving_your_right_or_a_new_way_to_crash