U.S.

General Services Administration

Federal Acquisition Service

Emily Gartland and Debra Ferris

GSA Fleet Safety and National Safety Council

July 13, 2010

This presentation was made
in collaboration with the
National Safety Council
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Embrace Life

This presentation was made 2

in collaboration with the
National Safety Council
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Crashes are No Accident

 6,420,000 auto crashes in the United States in a year
 98% of crashes are caused by human error
 Every...5…seconds.. a car crash occurs

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Costly in Dollars
 $230 Billion dollars annually in the US

 The average company pays $740 for every employee

each year in off-the job injuries including coast
associated with absenteeism, health care and
productivity and unscheduled work interruptions

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Costly in Lives
 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes
in the United States
- one death every 13 minutes.

 Leading cause of death ages 1-44

 Driving is your most dangerous daily

activity- treat it that way

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Top Six Human Driver Errors

1. Failure to wear a seatbelt

2. Excessive speeding

3. Distraction/inattentiveness - eating, drinking, smoking, radio, cell phone..

4. Incorrect assumptions about other drivers

5. Tailgating/not leaving enough space between vehicles

6. Not checking traffic before pulling out or crossing lanes

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Three Types of Driver Distraction

 Visual – eyes off the road
 Crash risk up to 1.5x

 Mechanical – hands off the wheel

 Crash risk up to 1.6x

 Cognitive – mind off driving

 Higher risk due to brain overload
and selective attention.

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Combining Distractions
 Combination of visual and mechanical
 Crash risk up to 3.8x

 Combinations of visual, mechanical and cognitive

 Generally highest risks 3x-23x

– Reading 3.4x
– Reaching for a moving object 8.8x
– Turning around in seat 8.8x
– Texting 8-23x
– Cell phone conversations 4x

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Distraction Risk vs. Duration

 Most are low risk - eating, drinking, listening to radio, passengers
 High frequency and duration

 Some are higher risk - reading, putting on makeup, reaching for something
 Infrequent or for short durations

 Cell phone use causes the most crashes since it’s high risk and a lot of
people are doing it for an extended period of time.

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Cell Phones: A Distraction Like No Other

 Talking on cell phones increases crash risk 4x
 More than 100 million people are talking while driving
 11% of all drivers at any moment

 Result: 1.4 million crashes/year

(25% of all crashes)
are caused by cell phone use.

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Brain Overload

The parietal activation associated with driving

decreases by 37% with sentence listening.
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Brain imaging scientists liken this to plugging in an iron and a hairdryer at the same time, causing
brownout.
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Inattention Blindness

What a driver in a simulator saw when What the same driver saw while on a
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not using a phone. phone conversation.
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T V
U I
N S
N I Frame of vision of drivers not using a phone.
E O
L N

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Frame of vision of same drivers during phone conversations.
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No Such Thing as “Multitasking”

 Driving and talking on a phone requires the brain to

switch back and forth between these tasks.

There is a “reaction-time switching cost”

One task “primary” and the other “secondary.”

When driving is a secondary task for the brain, driving becomes impaired.

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Hands-free Devices do not Reduce the Risk

• 23 studies reported negative effects of cell phone use on handheld
phones. (Horrey & Wickens, 2006)

• 33 studies found effects in reaction time, speed, headway and lateral lane
position, for hands-free phones. (Caird, et al., 2008)

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Isn’t it just as dangerous talking to a passenger?

 With a passenger:
 You can rely on many non-verbal cues to understand the other person
 Passengers can see your driving environment
 Passengers can serve as an additional lookout for hazards

 As a result, passengers actually reduce crash risk for adult drivers

– not true for novice teen drivers

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Texting while Driving

 Texting while driving = 6 times more likely to result in an accident than
driving while intoxicated

 Texting while driving brings eyes off the

road an average of 4.6 out of 6 seconds

 At 55 MPH, one would travel the length of

a football field, including the end zones,
without looking at the road

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Executive Order 13513

October 1, 2009

FEDERAL LEADERSHIP ON REDUCING TEXT

MESSAGING WHILE DRIVING

Prohibits federal employees from texting behind the

wheel while working or while using government
vehicles and communications devices

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Solutions to Change Behavior

 New policies and laws and strong, visible enforcement of those laws.
 Cell phone bans in organizations to reduce work-related risks.

 Development of technologies to prevent calls and messages from being

sent or received from moving vehicles.

 Widespread education to change social acceptance.

 Make it meaningful to each individual

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Implement Enforced Policy (or Exposed to Liability)

 Dykes Industries: $20.9 million

 International Paper: $5.2 million

 State of Hawaii: $2.5 million

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Technology Solutions
 Cellcontrol
 OBD trigger device, commercially available
 Key2Safe Driving
 An in car device that wirelessly connects with a cell phone through Bluetooth
 iZup (Illume Software)
 Launching soon, handset solution
 Zoom Safer
 Downloadable app currently available for RIM devices.
 Try Safety First
 A chip in phones similar to V chip in Televisions
 Guardian Angel
 Announced in April 2009
 Jamming technology – FCC challenges
 DriveAssist (Aegis Mobility)
 Wireless network solution using GPS and WiFi
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 Partnered with Nationwide Insurance
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Providing Education
 Increase understanding of the research
 Parents educate teens.
 Organizations & leaders educate employees.
 Peer-to-peer viral strategies for teens.
 Wireless industry reach customers and public.
 Legislators enact laws.

 Develop strategies to change the culture and make it socially

unacceptable to use a cell phone while driving.

 Use emotion and personal stories.

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What this means to you personally

 If all the people in the
cars around you were
your loved ones, how
would that change the
way you drive?

 Everyone in the cars

around you is
somebody’s loved one-
let’s look out for each
other.
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We all Have a Story..

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Bailey, Merideth, Cady, 16 Erica, 9 Jean and Jay, 58

Hannah, Sara and Katie

No call is worth a life.

Jason, 38 Lauren, 17 Matt, 25 Frances, 13 Jordan, 18

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What You Can Do

• Don’t talk on the phone or text while driving

• Enact a policy covering your employees

• Support legislation to enact bans on cell phone

use while driving

• Implement life-saving technology for yourself,

workplace, and families

• Educate people you care about

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Questions for Us?

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