Distraction - Page 2
Earlier this month, the European Commission published a proposal to revise qualification and training rules for lorry and bus drivers. ETSC welcomed the initiative but says the rules should be extended to van drivers and include elements on avoiding distraction. Data from 2014 show that 3,863 people were killed in collisions involving HGVs of more than 3.5 tons and 751 in those involving buses and coaches. But ETSC points out that more die in collisions involving vans, than with lorries (nearly 4,000 in 2012). […]
ETSC’s Greek member organisation RSI Panos Mylonas has strongly rejected a government proposal to cut fines for traffic offences including speeding and use of mobile phones at the wheel. The plans came to light in a Sunday newspaper interview with deputy minister Nikolaos Toskas. Mr Toskas commented that the current fines are too high for Greek people facing difficult economic circumstances. While sympathetic to the harsh financial pressures many Greeks are facing, RSI Panos Mylonas and ETSC commented that the move would be a […]
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued new guidelines aimed at encouraging phone manufacturers to introduce an automatic ‘Driver Mode’ to cut down on distracting apps and messages while driving. The proposals, announced earlier this month, are voluntary. They envisage a simplified display, and a block on distracting apps, both of which could be activated automatically while driving. Samsung’s popular Galaxy series of phones offer a drive mode already but it must be activated manually. Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone has no such feature, […]
Driving while talking on a hands-free phone can be as distracting as talking on a hand-held mobile, psychologists at the University of Sussex say. The study, published in the Transportation Research journal, found that drivers having conversations which sparked their visual imagination detected fewer road hazards than those who didn’t. They also focused on a smaller area of the road ahead of them and failed to see hazards, even when they looked directly at them. This shows the risks of even hands-free phone conversations. […]
Exceeding speed limits, drink or distracted driving and failure to wear a seat belt are still the leading causes of death and serious injury on European roads. Despite legislation designed to prevent all four, many drivers involved in fatal traffic collisions clearly failed to comply with one or more road traffic laws at the time of their collision. Improvements in traffic law enforcement should be part of an integrated road safety policy and have been shown to lead to rapid reductions in deaths and […]
Two New York State politicians, together with a road safety advocacy organisation are aiming to introduce a new law requiring police to scan drivers’ mobile phones for possible activity in the run up to collisions. The proposed legislation is linked to development of technology nicknamed a ‘textalyser’ which claims to be able to scan a mobile device for recent activity such as calling or texting, without releasing personal information. The system could be carried out by police at the crash site, much as drivers […]
Drivers more than double their crash risk when they choose to engage in distracting activities that require them to take their eyes off the road, such as using a mobile phone, reading or writing, or using touchscreen menus on a vehicle instrument panel, according to new American research. The authors of the study say drivers engage in some type of distracting activity more than 50 percent of the time they are driving. “These findings are important because we see a younger population of drivers, […]
Better data collection on the role of distraction in collisions across the EU and a standardised interface to fix and connect mobile devices to the car dashboard are two of the recommendations of a new report on countermeasures for in-vehicle distraction for the European Commission. The study, by TRL, TNO and Rapp-Trans, published last month says data on how many collisions involve distraction is poor but experts estimate that it plays a role in 10-30% of them. The authors suggest promoting ‘Distracted by device’ […]
Case study: Unilever Poland ETSC’s PRAISE project addresses the safety aspects of driving at work and driving to work. Its aim is to promote best practice in order to help employers secure high road safety standards for their employees. In this interview, Edyta Karpiuk-Jagodzinska, Safety, Health and Environment Coordinator for Poland and the Baltics at Unilever discusses how the organisation has integrated road safety into the heart of its operations. FACTFILE Company: Unilever Poland (2014 ETSC PRAISE Awards – Highly Commended) Sector: Fast Moving Consumer Goods […]
Drivers caught speeding in Luxembourg will face tougher penalties from 1 June when a revised driving license points system comes into force. Speeders will have four or six points deducted, up from two or four points today. For the first time, drivers caught using a phone or tablet while driving, tail gating or ignoring one way signs will also lose two points on their license. Drink and drug drivers will also see in an increase in the penalty from four to six points. Political […]
New road safety campaigns from France and Finland take vastly different approaches to getting road safety messages across. The new French video, launched in February, shows in bleak, close-up images the impact of road collisions on several individuals who suffered life changing injuries, and their families. It follows a number of increasingly shocking films released in recent months that have included a class of primary school children wiped out by a car, a fake ‘funeral’ for speeding motorists and a film released by police […]
Deaths on Spanish roads declined by just 3 in 2014, with 1131 deaths compared to 1134 in 2013. The government pointed to several explanations for the slow-down in progress including a rise in distracted driving with more people using applications such as Whatsapp at the wheel. An ageing fleet, linked to Spain’s ongoing economic woes, was also blamed. Jesus Monclús, director of ETSC member Fundación Mapfre told the El País newspaper that some measures “lose effectiveness over time” such as the penalty points system introduced […]
The French government has announced more than twenty new road safety measures following the first national rise in road deaths in over a decade. The number of deaths on French roads rose by 3.7 percent – to a total of 3,388 people – in 2014, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry. Vulnerable road users were disproportionately affected with pedestrian deaths rising by 8 percent and cyclists by 7 percent. The measures announced include a plan to reduce the speed limit on some […]
Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Runeberginkatu 2, Helsinki 9:00 – 13:00, 7 October 2014 The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and Liikenneturva (the Finnish Road Safety Council) held a conference on distracted driving on 7 October 2014. Download the agenda. Presentations 1. PIN Overview – ETSC 2. Distracted Driving – ITS Leeds 3. Drivers’ need for information and the problem of distraction – VTT 4. Distracted Driving in Italy – Fondazione Ania 5. Distracted Driving in Finland – Liikenneturva [<a href=”//storify.com/etsc_eu/etsc-liikenneturva-distracted-driving-conference-h” target=”_blank”>View the story “ETSC / […]
Research by Ford carried out in seven EU countries has found that young British drivers are the most likely to take a ‘selfie’ while driving. According to the survey, British drivers were the most likely to photograph themselves while on the move (33 per cent), ahead of counterparts in Germany (28 per cent), France (28 per cent), Romania (27 per cent), Italy (26 per cent), Spain (18 per cent), and Belgium (17 per cent). The survey of 7,000 smartphone users aged 18-24 from across […]
Cinemagoers in Hong Kong were given a shocking reminder of how easy it is to get distracted at the wheel thanks to a clever viral awareness campaign that has been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube.
This report aims at offering employers insight on how to minimise distractions, but to offer a clear and specific scope it will focus on in-vehicle distractions associated with the use of electronic devices or so-called “nomadic devices” including mobile phones, smart phones, music players and portable navigation devices (PNDs). It aims to provide a source of information and recommendations to employers based on a recently completed longer study on the regulatory situation in the Member States regarding brought-in (i.e. nomadic) devices and their use […]
This report provides an overview of the results of a study commissioned by the European Commission (DG INFSO) to the consortium of IGES, University of Leeds and ETSC on the regulatory situation in the Member States on mounting and using nomadic devices (such as GPS and mobile phones) in motor vehicles. Nomadic devices comprise all portable electronic devices for information, entertainment, or communication that can be used outside of the vehicle and inside the vehicle by the driver whilst driving. Deriving from this context, the objectives of the […]
This first thematic report aims to present how in-vehicle safety equipment can improve and manage work related road safety. This report addresses all employers managing all types of vehicle from public authorities, vehicle leasing suppliers, small two car delivery companies to large international companies and also vehicle manufacturers.
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