You could get into a car accident and possibly harm yourself or someone else. Behavioral economics combines insights and findings from psychology and economics to explain, and try to correct, counter-productive or predictably irrational decision-making. Consider these tips for safe driving: If you must send or receive a text, pull over to a safe location and park your car first. In some cases, hands-free use of navigation and music apps may be permitted if programmed at the beginning of the drive or while stopped. The researchers were able to collect data on how often the young drivers “unlocked” their cell phone, their trip length in miles and hours, and vehicle speed. 1 Workers in many industries and occupations spend all or part of their workdays on the road. Distracted driving, often associated with cell phone use, texting, or manipulating in-vehicle devices, has become recognized as one of the leading causes of motor-vehicle injuries and fatalities. All Rights Reserved. NHTSA leads the national effort to save lives by preventing this dangerous behavior. The second is “opt-out” blocking: The app activates automatically when the vehicle is in motion. The researchers will investigate strategies that can be deployed in usage-based insurance (UBI) programs using data collected by Progressive Insurance based on an app developed by TrueMotion, a smartphone telematics platform. Quote: “92% of adolescents reported regularly engaging in distracted driving behavior. The third strategy is “opt-out” blocking with notifications: This is the same as the second strategy, but parents will also be alerted when the teen overrides the blocking strategy. Engaging in handheld cell phone use increases the risk of a crash substantially, and distracted driving research is much needed to prevent crashes involving young drivers. This study examines the effectiveness of a distracted driving smartphone application for teen drivers and their parents. Research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that every day in the U.S., at least nine people die and more than 1,060 are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver. Oct. 6, 2020 MSU civil engineers helping Michigan combat dangerous driving In the United States, about 9 people are killed every day due to car crashes that involved a distracted … Researchers used video technology and in-vehicle sensors to show that distracted driving, particularly among new drivers, substantially raises the risk for car crashes and near crashes. Research surrounding Distracted Driving. It will take a multipronged approach, one that addresses the unique factors that contribute to distracted driving in teens behind the wheel. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey found 20% of drivers age 18-20 said texting does not affect their driving, and nearly 30% of drivers ages 21-34 said texting has no impact. Producing a public health law database to evaluate interventions that can be used in other states. Way to Safety 2.0: Opt-in vs. Opt-out Cellphone Blocking +/-Notifications. Any of these distractions can endanger you, your passengers, and others on the road. The first is “opt-in” blocking, which is similar to using “Airplane Mode:” Drivers must remember to turn on the app when getting in the car. This study, funded by the Federal Highway Administration, will investigate behavioral economics strategies to reduce cell phone use behind the wheel. Distracted Driving Simulation Research . Distracted Driving Among Newly Licensed Teen Drivers. Now recruiting participants! Outcomes for these studies are measured either through use of a driving simulator and/or a smartphone application and paired in-vehicle device. Distracted driving injures or kills 1,000 Americans every day. occurs when drivers divert their attention from the driving task to focus on some other activity. Cell phones and passengers are a major source of inattention to the roadway and are a contributing factor in motor vehicle crashes involving teens behind the wheel. The researchers examined data from 3,500 drivers over a three-year period, pulled from across six collection sites in the U.S. They then pilot tested the intervention using driving simulation to test the effects of the intervention on cell phone use, passenger engagement, and driving performance. Learn about CIRP’s distracted driving research that focuses on reducing distracted driving in teens through behavior change. Read a press release about the study grant, Principal Investigators: Kit Delgado, MD; Catherine C. McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN. Though driving while exhausted may seem relatively harmless, it has serious consequences. We are testing different ways to implement this technology to sustainably reduce cell phone use distraction in the long run. Penn and CHOP Team Receives $1.84 Million Grant to Study Best Practices for Curbing Cell Phone Use While Driving, © 2020 Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Parents are notified via email when their teen overrides the cell phone blocking function. 2716 South Street, 13th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19146, Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies, Describing Pediatric and Adolescent Concussion, Motion and Muscle Activation of Young Volunteers in Evasive Vehicle Maneuvers, New Jersey GDL Decals and Vehicle Identifiers, Traffic Medicine and Transportation Equity, Transportation Planning for Safe Mobility, New Jersey Safety and Health Outcomes Data Warehouse, Injury Science REU Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Lincoin University - PA Projects, Completed and Foundational Research Projects, National Child Occupant Special Study (NCOSS), Partners for Child Passenger Safety (PCPS), Quantitative Assessments For Sports-Related Concussion, Ecologically Momentary Assessment Track Symptoms, Leveraging Electronic Health Records (EHR) for Concussion Surveillance, Ohio Portable Driving Simulator System Pilot, Evaluation of Community Outreach Programs for Teen Driver Safety, New Jersey Safety and Health Outcomes Data Warehouse Research, Injury Science REU Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University - PA Projects. A National Occupant Protection Use Survey reports that handheld cell phone use continues to be highest among 16-24-year-old drivers. Sending a text message, talking on a cell phone, using a navigation system, and eating while driving are a few examples of distracted driving. An estimated 391,000 drivers were injured in distracted driving crashes in 2017. Distracted driving is dangerous, claiming 2,841 lives in 2018 alone. The researchers examined teens' willingness to reduce cell phone use while driving and perceptions of potential strategies to limit this behavior via a survey. For unintentional injuries, there is a need to better understand the trends, causes and preventions strategies for motor vehicle crashes due to distracted driving. © 2020 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The overall goal of the research is to reduce rates of cell phone use while driving for the entire family. This number does not reflect serious injuries, minor injuries, hit and run accidents, and damages to … Share the study flyer. Safe Actions for Employee Returns (SAFER). Drowsy driving is dangerous because sleep deprivation can have similar effects on your body as drinking alcohol. Although driving distracted encompasses a variety of activities, cell phone use is among the most dangerous because the behavior involves taking a driver’s hands off the wheel (manual distraction), eyes off the … Highway Fatalities: 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016, an increase of 5.6% from 2015 (data not yet available for 2017) NHTSA; Distracted Driving: 10% of fatal crashes and 15% of injury crashes in 2015 were distraction-affected. Distracted driving is an activity that can take a driver’s eyes off the road and divert his/her attention. The study team hopes to develop interventions that can be delivered through smartphones to discourage cell phone use while driving, a dangerous distraction. In 2019, distracted driving was a reported factor in 8.5% of fatal motor vehicle crashes. Read a HealthDay article about the research, Authors: Catherine C. McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN; Kit Delgado, MD; Mark R. Zonfrillo, MD, Funding: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, State Texting Bans Are Saving Teen Drivers' Lives, Novel Measures of Cell Phone Use While Driving, How Do You Get Teens to Stop Cell Phone Use While Driving? Each day 660,000 drivers use their cell phones while driving resulting in more than 400,000 deaths and injuries each year. Novel smartphone applications exist that can limit handheld cell phone use while the vehicle is in motion by locking the phone screen, silencing notifications, and sending automated responses to incoming text messages. CHOP's Teen Driving Safety Research team is currently conducting rigorous research on adolescents with developmental disabilities, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, who want to drive or are currently driving, to examine their rates of licensure and risk of crashing to help establish the epidemiologic foundation for future translational research. Distracted driving is anything that takes your eyes or mind off the road, or hands off the steering wheel – especially when texting or using your phone. The results of this formative research on cell phones and peer passengers were published in Traffic Injury Prevention, the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, and the Journal of School Nursing. The information gathered about how adolescent drivers engage with their phones at elevated speeds will help inform future research on the nature of risky driving behaviors and how to prevent them. Free Report: Understanding Driving Distraction, Young Drivers Report Highest Level of Phone Involvement in Crash or Near-Crash Incidences, Distracted Driving Among Newly Licensed Teen Drivers, Sample videos showing distraction and teen crashes. May 2014. Anything that takes your attention away from driving can be a distraction. The app activates automatically when the vehicle is in motion, uses innovative recognition software to determine if the phone-user is the passenger or driver of the vehicle, and locks the phone while the user is driving. These strategies have been found to be successful in helping people change difficult health behaviors, such as smoking and not taking medications as prescribed. NHTSA’s distracted driving webpage, has more information on distracted driving. According to a study by researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which has conducted some of the nation’s most significant research on distracted driving, and the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (Copeland n.pag. They also found that drivers eat, reach for the phone, text, or otherwise take their eyes off the road about 10% of the time. Generating data to prevent distracted driving injuries. However, no one strategy will prevent cell phone use while driving in adolescents. Cellular device use while behind the wheel is one of the most common forms of distracted driving. Distracted driving was the reported cause of death of 3,450 people in 2016. Social Norms and Risk Perception: Predictors of Distracted Driving Behavior Among Novice Adolescent Drivers P. Carter, C. Bingham, J. Zakrajsek … University of Michigan School of Medicine. When drivers divert their attention from the road of crashes is a potential distraction and your... 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