Study: Distraction Behind Most Car Crashes - Yahoo! News

Study: Distraction Behind Most Car Crashes - Yahoo! News:

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Those sleep-deprived, multitasking drivers — clutching cell phones, fiddling with their radios or applying lipstick — apparently are involved in an awful lot of crashes.
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Distracted drivers were involved in nearly eight out of 10 collisions or near-crashes, says a study released Thursday by the government.

Well, shock of shocks. I wonder if "dumbass" is more a factor in driving than even that ever-popular scapegoat, speed. Ask the Montanans and the Germans if their cherished and now lost no-limit highways were safer than they are now, or not.

A driver's reaching for a moving object increased the risk of a crash or potential collision by nine times, according to researchers at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Tell Timmy to hold still while you slap him, or maybe keep your legs closed the next time there's a risk of you adding another chavvy urchin to this planet.

"All of these activities are much more dangerous than we thought before," said Dr. Charlie Klauer, a senior research associate at the institute. Data from police reports had estimated that driver inattention was a factor in about 25 percent of crashes.

I call Bullshit. Jack that number up a bit, since you're probably classing things inconsistently and also reporting more than three times that number above.

Drowsy driving increased the driver's risk of a crash or near-crash by four times to six times, the study said. But the study's authors said drowsy driving is frequently underreported in police investigations.

Hmm. Four times what? Is that in the 25%?

The cell phone industry and others say distraction takes many forms; for example, eating food, going through the newspaper or inserting CDs into the stereo system.

Agreed. Put down the Britney, honey, just go with whatever crap is in the 10-disc changer now, get your bopper chick friends to shut the hell up, and maybe you'll get daddy's Odyssey home in one piece.