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May 19
by Larry Copeland, USA Today
Texting while driving is not only dangerous and illegal in 43 states and Washington, D.C., it's also annoying for other drivers.
Extremely annoying — according to a survey out Friday.
Almost 7 in 10 American drivers — 69% — rate their fellow drivers who text, e-mail or talk on a phone while driving as among the most aggravating motorists on the road.
Despite gritting their teeth when they see others doing it, more than half of drivers — 55% — admit to using a mobile phone at least some of the time while driving, according to Expedia's 2014 Road Rage Report, a survey of 1,001 licensed drivers conducted April 29-May 5. It has a margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points.
"There's a belief out there that everybody is the problem except me, when actually you, in fact, are the problem," says Sarah Gavin, an Expedia travel expert. "There's a belief that if you're on the road traveling, one little text won't hurt that much. But when you have 30 million people out on the road and each of them wants to send just one little text, that's when (crashes) happen."
Those crashes are often fatal: 3,328 people died in distraction-related crashes in 2012, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; another 421,000 were injured. It's now illegal to text while driving in every state except Arizona, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
Among the other behaviors of their fellow motorists that drivers find highly annoying: tailgating, multi-tasking (applying makeup, eating, reading, for example), straddling or weaving between lanes and driving well below the speed limit.
The Expedia survey, found that motorists believe the rudest drivers tend to cluster in the nation's big cities: 71% of respondents put New York among the five rudest driving cities; Los Angeles, at 22%, was second. And surprise, (whatever happened to Southern hospitality?) Atlanta came in third, at 9%.
Among other findings:
• Drivers are generally pessimistic about gas prices, with 96% believing they'll pay more at the pump this summer. Nevertheless, 56% see a road trip as an "ideal" way to spend a vacation. "To me, that says Americans are starting to get over their economic hangover," Gavin says.
• Drivers are considerate, and frugal-minded, when they rent a car: 61% of respondents say they treat rental cars better than their own vehicles; 92% "always" refill the gas tank before returning a rental, perhaps to avoid paying outrageous rental agency refill prices.
• Printed maps are fading into obscurity: 40% use mobile phone apps such as Google and Apple maps for driving directions, 35% rely on dashboard GPS systems and 22% use printed maps.
• Finally, there's apparently a small, but very active community of drivers on American roads who flash the middle finger at other motorists: 69% of drivers in the survey report being "flipped off" by another driver. Only 17% admit to having done so themselves.
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Apr 16
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and a new infographic created by Katherman Briggs & Greenberg seeks to raise recognition of the dangers of texting and driving.
Distracted driving is a huge problem in the United States, where at any given time 660,000 of us are using our cell phone behind the wheel. If you’re going 40 MPH, in the 4.6 seconds that it takes on average to read or send a text message, your car will have traveled the length of 16 cars. Is it worth it to have your eyes off the road for that long?
Whether we do this dangerous multitasking out of habit or in an effort to be more productive, the results are the same: we put ourselves and others in danger. In 2011, there were over 3,300 deaths and 387,000 injuries as a result of distracted driving.
Learn more about the risks from the graphic below. Do your part, this month and beyond, to resist texting behind the wheel. It could save your life.
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Apr 09
If so, you need an ORIGOSafe™, stat! Of course, these "textperts" are a little (ok, extremely) over the top, but we'd be willing to bet you've seen at least one of these activities taking place in a neighboring vehicle while you're stuck in traffic, waiting at a stoplight, or even flying down the freeway. Sometimes we laugh at what we are most afraid of:
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Mar 31
If you’ve been keeping up with your ORIGO™ news, you know that we’ve been getting some attention from our Virginia politicos lately. First it was Senator Tim Kaine in December, then, a few days ago, Congressman Bob Goodlatte (we now have bipartisan approval!).
Congressman Goodlatte was gracious enough to stop in at the ORIGO™ Warehouse for a demonstration of the ORIGOSafe™ texting and driving solution, take a tour, and learn a little about our business.
As Chairman of the House Republican High-Technology Working Group, Congressman Goodlatte takes special interest in technological advancement, especially when it means creating jobs for Americans:
“The technology sector has served as the engine of America’s economic growth in recent years and will play a critical role in our economic recovery*,” said Congressman Goodlatte in a meeting of the Tech Working Group.
We, at ORIGO™, are proud to source virtually all of our materials from US manufacturers (most of them right in Virginia, our headquarters) and assemble the ORIGOSafe™ ourselves in Roanoke, Virginia to ensure the quality and integrity of our product.
A big thank you to Congressman Goodlatte for taking the time to pay a visit, you are welcome back anytime!
Here are a few snapshots of the Congressman’s visit (please excuse the warehouse lighting):
Congressman Goodlatte tours the warehouse
Demoing the ORIGOSafe™
The ORIGO™ Team with Congressman Bob Goodlatte
*Sept 20, 2012 http://goodlatte.house.gov/press_releases/337 "GOP TECH WORKING GROUP ANNOUNCES TECHNOLOGY ACCOMPLISHMENTS"
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Mar 10
Despite countless awareness campaigns, programs, and pledges revolving around the prevention of texting and driving, new reports show that texting and driving isn't going away- in fact, in some states, this wreckless activity is actually on the rise. A new poll in Michigan reports a doubling in the percentage of drivers who admit to texting or emailing while driving since the poll two years previous:
"The state police's Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning said Wednesday that 16.3 percent of the 600 people polled Jan. 13-16 acknowledge either texting or emailing while driving.
The office says Glengariff Group Inc. carried out the poll, which has a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points up or down.g. A survey in 2012 found that 8.2 percent acknowledged testing or emailing behind the wheel.It says 58.7 percent of Michigan motorists acknowledge making and accepting phone calls while driving. That's about the same as the 56.5 percent who acknowledged phoning in the 2012 survey."
(Copyright ©2014 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
The fact is that unless there is something in place to physically stop a driver from texting while driving (ORIGOSafe™!), they will do it, despite knowledege of the risks involved.
--image curtosy of MariettaTimes.com
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Feb 28
HOMEDALE, Idaho (KBOI) -- Madi Fisher is new behind the wheel. But the 16-year-old already knows too well how careful she needs to be.
"I don't want to make the mistakes that a lot of teenagers make," Madi said, naming those, "That pick up their phones or just don't pay attention."
That's because Madi has seen what can happen when you drive distracted by a phone. She grew up with Taylor Sauer, who she considered an older sister.
Maid's mom, Tracy, knows how close the girls were.
"They were literally attached," Tracy said. "Madi was attached to her hip."
Taylor was killed in 2012 when she picked up her phone to text while driving.
Tracy Fisher says the crash was hard for Madi to cope with.
"It was extremely hard on her," Tracy said.
"It just makes me realize that stuff happens, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, because it's the worst feeling in the world," Madi told KBOI. "It definitely shows me that I'm not invincible, and anything could happen."
Madi keeps her favorite picture of Taylor in front of her steering wheel to remind herself to be careful. But she admits she still struggles with picking up her phone while she's driving.
So KBOI decided to help. The Fishers agreed to let us help install OrigoSafe in Madi's car. It's a gadget that keeps teens from using their phone while their car is in gear. Madi told us she was on-board with the decision.
"She's definitely doing this for Taylor," Tracy explained. "taylor would have loved this. Taylor would have been into this, and if this would have happened to Madi, Taylor would have done it for Madison."
A professional installed the machine in Madi's car, then a KBOI reporter met her back at her house to show her how to use it.
In order to use her car, Madi has to dock her phone in the Origosafe machine. Once the phone's in it, she can start the car.
She can drive fine as long as the phone stays in its place, but we had her drive in an empty parking lot so we could safely show her what happens if she tries to break the rules.
When she tried to take the phone out with the car in gear, a loud alarm sounded. She had to put the phone back in the dock to get the noise to stop. Then after she stopped her car, it wouldn't start again.
Because she broke the rules and pulled out her phone, she had to call and get a one-time-use code from her mom, in order to start the car again. She could get the car home by using that code, but after that her mom had to enter a reset code into the OrigoSafe device.
With the machine, Madi can't use her phone behind the wheel without an obnoxious alarm sounding and her mom finding out, but she says she knows it's for the best.
"I'm really excited about this," she said. "Anything that I can do that reminds me of Taylor makes me happy. I would do anything for her and I know she would do anything for me."
Taylor's mom, Shauna Sauer says her daughter would be happier than Madi even realizes.
"I think she'd be really proud of her," Sauer told KBOI. "She loved Madi...But I think she'd just be really touched that she'd want to do this for her, to prove that we're all trying to pay it forward and trying to make a difference."
Madi has been using her OrigoSafe device for about a month now. When KBOI checked in, her mom told us so far, she hasn't broken the no-phone rule while driving and is doing well with getting in to the habit of putting the phone away before she drives.
The OrigoSafe machine costs $274 and it costs $125 to have it installed. Once it's put in a vehicle, it can be used with multiple family phones. -
Feb 20
From Insurance Business America Magazine:
Charges and convictions for distracted driving are only scratching the surface, says broker, as they are likely hidden within the category of careless driving.
“Texting and driving probably is worse than the numbers show, because there just isn’t a great mechanism available to track that,” says Sean Graham, vice president, Kanetix Ltd. and principal broker at KTX Insurance Brokers. “It is really hard to track to see realistically how many of these accidents are being caused by distracted driving, because a lot of these accidents are actually coded as ‘careless driving’ convictions; whereas, if someone is drunk driving and causes an accident, they will get a drunk-driving conviction.”
Graham admits he can’t point to empirical numbers that have been scientifically gathered, but he does offer anecdotal evidence from his own brokerage.
“We see people coming in with DUIs (impaired driving), and we’ll see it show up as a DUI conviction on their driving record,”
Graham told Insurance Business. “We’ll also see clients come in with – the conviction is called ‘prohibited use for a handheld device’ – your typical texting/cell phone violation. But we’ve seen a lot of accidents come through where the person is convicted for careless driving.”
And it those careless driving convictions from the accidents that are hiding the distracted driving numbers, says Graham – but there’s no hard evidence to prove it.“There’s not a great way to measure that (distracted driving),” he says, “and it is not coded that way, by the police or the government on the motor vehicle record.”
A 2011 Leger Marketing consumer survey conducted for Kanetix showed 18% of drivers admitted to texting and talking while driving. Today, with the explosion of tablets and smart phones, those numbers have probably doubled, says Graham.
“Conservatively, I’d say that 18% is more like 35 or 36% today,” he says.The survey sampled 1,300 drivers, asking what their bad habits were behind the wheel. The worst offenders were the hungriest and the thirstiest, with 39% admitting to consuming food or beverages while driving.
“The next worst were 36% who admitted to speeding, followed by 18% who said they were texting and talking while driving,” says Graham. “And texting and talking has been increasing since then.”
Some of the key findings from the survey include:
Consuming food or beverages while driving……39%
Speeding …………………………………………36%
Talking/Texting on my cell while driving……….18%
Following too closely…………………………….16%
Road rage…………………………………….…..11%
Failing to signal……………………………….…10%
Weaving in and out of traffic………………….….7%
Applying makeup while driving…………………..3%
Parking illegally…………………………………...3%
Parking in handicap spaces………………….....2%
Driving in the carpool lane…………………….....1%Are there any perfect drivers out there? According to the survey, almost one in five; as 19 per cent described themselves as being ‘a perfect driver.’
This post was taken from Insurance Business of America article titled 'Careless' category hides true distracted driving numbers published Feb. 17, 2014
'texting' image from http://statepolitics.lohudblogs.com
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Feb 04
Phillip Miller of www.seriousinjury.com
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Jan 24
In this story, CNN's Kelly Wallace interviews the family of a 16-year-old boy who has just begun to learn to drive. Both Wallace and the teen's mother are shocked by the young man's candor when asked if he would ever text and drive. The answer should be an assertive "of course not!" but it wasn't.
If you have asked your teen this question, and he or she had a similar response, we hope you have taken action. If the answer was no, do you really believe it? This is the predicament parents accross the country are finding themselves in, with a new generation, incubated from birth in the digital world, migrating to the driver's seat. So, what can you do? You really only have three options that would ensure your teen isn't texting and driving: take away the phone, take away the car, or install ORIGOSafe™.
The first two may be the solution for your family, and if so, more power to you. But they aren't realistic options for most, and certainly don't do much for cultivating a positive relationship between you and your high-schooler during the angstiest years of his or her development. Resentment is in store here folks, and lots of it.
The third option has proven to be a success for a growing number of families accross the U.S. who were in tune enough with the problem of texting and driving to identify a solution that really works. The ORIGOSafe™, a phone dock istalled in your teen's (or family's) car, prevents handheld phone use altogether by prohibiting the car from starting until an authorized smartphone is placed in it. If the phone is removed while driving, an alarm sounds, and you (the parents) must be notified to reathorize your teen's phone for future use.
Watch this video and decide for yourself whether it's worth it to have to worry when your teen is out and about when you can have peace of mind knowing their eyes are on the road and hands are on the wheel, the way you taught them:
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Jan 15
Through ORIGO™’s SafePartner Program, we have the unique opportunity to join forces with likeminded organizations of all sizes across the United States to combat distracted driving. We partner with these groups to spread the reach of our common cause into communities everywhere, all the while helping them to raise funds for their organizations to keep up the good work. Today we are proud to feature two nonprofits that have recently partnered with ORIGO™ to incite positive change on their roads- check ‘em out!
Prevention Council of Roanoke, VA
The Prevention Council of Roanoke County is a community coalition, formed in March of 2001, which is committed to promoting the healthy development of the Roanoke County community, with a special emphasis on youth. As a community coalition, the Council exists as a partnership of parents, youth, school, faith, law enforcement, business, medical, and other community leaders. The main goal of the Council is to identify the critical risk behaviors that threaten the health and development of the community.
Of course, one of the biggest risks to teens (and all drivers, passengers, and pedestrians) is texting and driving- a risk the Prevention Council readily identified and is working to reduce in many ways, including their partnership with us. In fact, last week, the Council’s Director Nancy Hans had an ORIGOSafe™ installed in her own car!
In addition to the usual duties of a SafePartner, The Council is starting its own initiatives to study and prevent distracted driving. Through teen focus groups, youth discussions, and even some high school competitions, ORIGO™ and the Prevention Council are spreading the word about the need for a shift in driving habits. The Prevention Council of Roanoke VA is certainly going above and beyond to promote safety in the community!
C.L.I.F. Collegiate Life Investment Foundation
C.L.I.F. is a non-profit organization established to educate the high school and collegiate population about the dangers of distractive driving; in addition to serving as a life investment vehicle for African American young men and women intoday's society. In memory of Clifton B. Gibbs, a 23- year-old college graduate killed by a distracted driver, the organization encourages academic excellence, community involvement, and a sincere lifelong commitment to refrain from any use of mobile phones while driving.C.L.I.F. is a powerhouse organization headquartered in Memphis, TN that has made a huge difference in their community and beyond by way of their distracted driving events, awareness campaigns, pledges, and scholarships. With an active blog and a Twitter feed that keeps followers abreast of the most recent statistics, it’s clear that C.L.I.F. has its finger on the pulse of the distracted driving issue, and is working hard to solve it. We at ORIGO™ can’t wait to begin our collaboration with C.L.I.F.: We know big things are in store!
We are thrilled to welcome the Prevention Council and C.L.I.F. into our SafePartner program and look forward to working together to stamp out texting and driving!
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Want to make money for your school or organization while helping to fight the distracted driving epidemic? Fill out an easy application and become a SafePartner today!
