After digging deep into all facets of distracted driving and being flooded with new studies and stories everyday from across the United States, it is sometimes nice to have a refresher on where we stand to date, with only the most salient statistics and the who/what/where/why/how of the issue as a whole.

The article below (from Huffington Post) does just that. It encapsulates the state of our roads today- explores why distracted driving laws aren't working, digs into the statistics, acknowledges the public's awareness of the dangers of texting and driving, and points to the very real and ubiquitous phenomenon of cell phone addiction as the reason we do it anyway.

The only (and most important) thing omitted here is the solution- the ORIGOSafe™. By requiring that a driver place his or her phone in a dock in order to start a vehicle, the ORIGOSafe™ eliminates the risk of handheld cell phone use while driving. What sets the ORIGOSafe™ apart from other attemts to solve the problem of distracted driving is that you are able to stay safely connected through all hands-free functions of the phone (like Bluetooth and Siri) and charge your phone while it's in the dock so you never lose battery.

Also, we realize this post is the length of a short novel- read it when you have some time to digest it all, or just skim it for the main points. Either way, don't leave this page feeling hopeless. The solution to the distracted driving epidemic exists, and how fast we cure it is up to you!

From Huffington Post:

"Citizens and lawmakers nationwide are increasingly aware that using a cell phone while driving is the safety equivalent of taking the wheel after a few drinks. Yet despite a legislative and educational push to end distracted driving, Americans remain stubbornly unwilling to put down their digital devices, with progressively lethal consequences.

In 2011, the most recent year in which data is available, 3,331 people were killed in automobile accidents involving a distracted driver, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association -- more than the 3,267 such deaths reported the year before. About half of 2011's fatal crashes from a distracted driver didn't specify the source of distraction, but when distractions were identified, cell phones were often a leading cause, contributing to 350 fatalities, or 12 percent of all fatal crashes from driver distraction. And most experts say these statistics are vastly underreported, meaning that thousands more lives a year are almost certainly being claimed by an epidemic whose causes are already well understood.

This is not for lack of laws on the books. In the four years since The New York Times published a Pulitzer prize-winning series on distracted driving, most states have enacted some form of prohibition on talking or texting on cell phones while behind the wheel.

Some 41 states plus the District of Columbia now have a ban on texting while driving, according to a survey released this week by the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of each state. However, only 11 states and D.C. require drivers to use a hands-free device while talking on the phone. A total of 47 states report some form of enforcement protocol and public outreach effort aimed at limiting such practices, with the only holdouts being Arizona, South Carolina and Montana.

And yet this legislative response has failed to reverse the trend. According to the GHSA’s study, 15 states say their distracted driving crashes have increased, 11 say they have decreased and 16 report the same rate of crashes.

“Restrictions on cell phone use do not appear to be making the crashes go down faster in states that have the laws,” Russ Rader, senior vice president at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a driving research organization, told The Huffington Post.

Paradoxically, Rader added, cell phone bans appear to reduce instances of people using their phones while driving, yet that fails to translate into a “corresponding effect on crash risk.”

According to the NHTSA, using a cell phone while driving multiplies the risk of crashing by a factor of four, effectively making the practice as dangerous as driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 -- the legal limit under drunk driving laws. Texting while driving amplifies that risk as much as 23 times.

Dozens of studies have shown that using a hands-free device -- currently prescribed by 11 states that ban driving while using a hand-held phone -- is in fact equally, if not more dangerous, than holding the phone.

Nine in 10 Americans now grasp that talking on the phone while driving poses a substantial danger, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Yet seven of 10 report that they themselves talk on the phone while driving, and a third admit to reading texts and emails while behind the wheel.

That need to be connected while on the road has had profound consequences for 27-year-old Jacy Good. While driving home from her college graduation in May 2008, her car was struck by a semi-truck swerving to avoid a reckless driver talking on his cell phone. Both of her parents were killed instantly, and Good was left with lifelong handicaps.

“It’s an addiction. The laws have to be in place, but it has to go beyond that because obviously people aren’t complying with those laws,” Good told The Huffington Post. “It comes down to the social standards we set for ourselves; it needs to be as unacceptable as drunk driving.”

Even as the lethal consequences of this reality grow, so do the temptations to look away from the road and focus on a screen as the current of constant, 24/7 connectivity reaches further into every crevice of American life. Consumers increasingly expect to be wired and available for digital communication wherever the road takes them.

So-called infotainment systems included in cars will expand fivefold over the next five years, according to a forecast from the Automobile Association of America. The car is increasingly becoming a mobile office, social news feed and multimedia hub.

“There is a looming public safety crisis ahead with the future proliferation of these in-vehicle technologies,” said AAA President and CEO Robert L. Darbelnet in the report last month. “It’s time to consider limiting new and potentially dangerous mental distractions built into cars, particularly with the common public misperception that hands-free means risk-free.”

Overall, car accidents have steadily declined since 1975, yet the grave consequences of phone use while driving pull in the opposite direction, remaining stubbornly consistent.

The extent of the problem amounts to a crude science. Experts say data about distracted driving crashes is woefully inaccurate. The National Safety Council reviewed 180 fatal cell-phone related crashes from 2009-2011. Of these, only half were recorded in the federal data. Even in cases when the driver admitted to cell phone use, only 50 percent of the crashes were properly coded.

These systemic flaws -- in addition to crashes when there are no witnesses, a driver lies about phone use or the police do not ask about distractions -- have led the NSC to estimate that a quarter of all crashes involve phones, a figure far higher than the governmental estimate.

Most states have been making a push to limit such fatalities, taking their cue from The New York Times series and resulting public furor. Some 39 states plus D.C. now identify distracted driving as a priority issue, up from 28 states in 2010. More states than ever are collecting crash data, trying to enforce the state law and launching media campaigns.

“The science is out there, and we’re ignoring it,” Good said. “This is absolutely preventable ... there’s nothing on your phone that is more important than the life I wanted to live or the lives of my parents.”"

-Kevin Short, Huffington Post

Nashville, Tennessee. Home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry, great food, and…the 2013 National FCCLA Leadership Conference. That’s right, the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America held their annual national leadership conference here in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel (the largest non-gambling hotel in the country), and it’s a good thing they did because they wouldn’t have fit anywhere else! Yes, a sea of crimson shirts (FCCLA’s official color) flowed through the halls of the hotel and convention center this week, a sea that you wouldn’t mind overflowing into your community- these are some of the most mature, responsible, and involved teens in the country, coalescing to talk about community safety and smart lifestyle choices and, most of all, develop leadership skills in young people who have something to say. As FCCLA puts it: “Discover Your Voice.”

“Discovering one’s voice” aligns in a most literal sense with the ORIGOSafe™, our solution to texting and driving; FCCLA’s many teen leaders recognized and appreciated the benefits of the ORIGOSafe™ shutting out all but the necessary voice-led, hands free functions of a driver’s phone to eliminate the dangers of texting or surfing the web while driving and save lives.

The ORIGO™ booth, which we are manning this week to demonstrate the ORIGOSafe™, has met a constant stream of safety-minded teens who have provided us with invaluable feedback about what our solution could do for them, other teens, and their families too. “My mom needs one in her car!” was not an uncommon reaction to overhear in the ORIGO™ booth these last two days. She probably does need one!

The FCCLA conference has been amazing- to be surrounded by teens who really care about our cause, and organizations (NOYS, AT&T’s “It Can Wait”) who work for the same goal of eliminating distraction from the driver’s seat to save lives has been a special experience we are excited to have been a part of.

Tomorrow is the last day of the event, so if you happen to be in Nashville, stop by our booth and say hello, watch a demo of the ORIGOSafe™, or listen to our presentation on the dangers of distracted driving and the benefits of our solution!

Oh, by the way, since we’re in the Country Music City what would be more appropriate than to leave you with a country song about distracted driving?!

We all know that texting and driving is no joke. Collisions resulting from handheld cell phone use kill 3,000 people every year on American roads.

Ad campaigns depicting bloodied foreheads, shattered glass, and tears can be powerful, but the audience they target may now be desensitized to this approach altogether. 

3 months ago, an Australian ad agency rolled out a unique (to say the least) campaign to encourage safety around the public transit system Australian Metro. Since the campaign’s airing, deaths near the Metro have been reduced by a whopping 20% .

So here’s the video. Disclaimer: This video contains graphic images of animated characters being injured (or worse) in a variety of creative, yet gruesome ways. Not for the faint of heart.

So, what if a campaign like the one above cropped up stateside and planted an infectious melody and some colorful animation where the wailing sirens and tangled metal now reign in the realm of anti-texting and driving PSAs?

Not saying we at ORIGO™ think that too much levity in the face of the leading cause of road fatalities is necessarily in good taste, but bringing awareness to the dangers of distracted driving is our goal, and we are willing to at least cautiously entertain and consider the effects of such a campaign if it works for the greater good. What do you think? Is it too irreverent? Too over the top? Would it work to prevent texting and driving? Let us know.

Of course, if you read blog ORIGO™, you know that a PSA is really only the first step.

 Campaigns, pledges, and even laws aren’t enough to permanently keep people from texting and driving. They just aren’t.  There is no doubt these measures help, but without something in place to keep drivers from texting, they will continue to do it, regardless of its illegality or their knowledge of the risks involved. It’s just human nature, and the stats don’t lie.

This is why we at ORIGO™ created the ORIGOSafe™- a simple, yet comprehensive texting and driving solution that removes the phone from a driver’s hands completely, while allowing the hands-free communication that is a necessity for many drivers.

How does that work, you ask? Read about the ORIGOSafe™ here.

…And try not to let your co-workers hear you humming the tune from that video for the rest of the day.

Though your teenager may pretend to ignore you, they may be paying more attention than you think, especially when you’re behind the wheel.

Actually, parents’ driving patterns are observed by their children from an early age, and may have something to do with their little passengers’ driving behaviors further down the road (so to speak!). According to a recent study involving 400 teams of teens and parents, the adults had no idea what an impact their driving had on the youngsters, or how frequently their teens performed dangerous activities like eating or texting (proven to be the most dangerous behavior on the road) while at the wheel. The study showed that parents who exhibited distracted driving behavior were more likely to have teens with the same issues.

Years of observation of your behavior in the car can make or break a good teen driver. According to Dr. Tina Sayer, principal engineer at Toyota's Collaborative Safety Research Center,

"Driver education begins the day a child's car seat is turned around to face front."

Monkey see, monkey do. So if you see your young driver fixing his or her hair, eating, or (*gasp*) texting, make sure you can say they didn't learn it from you! Whether your kid turns out to be a good example to other teens, or turns out to be part of the dangerous problem we have on our hands right now with distracted driving running rampant is up to you. Model responsible behavior at the wheel for the sake of your teens and the safety of our roads!

Modeling safe behavior ties neatly into what we are doing here at ORIGO™ to stop handheld cell phone use, the #1 killer on our roads today. The ORIGOSafe™ texting and driving solution is not just for parents to “impose” on teens to force them to drive safe. It is a choice the whole family can make to ensure that they can all resist the temptation to perform these dangerous activities while driving, and set a good example for the little ones wiggling in the car seat or the bigger ones with the iPods blaring who are still more impressionable than they’d ever let on. The most dangerous thing we do every day is getting behind the wheel of a car.

Let’s work together to make it a lot safer.