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HSFPP Update #186—Is Using Your Cell Phone in Your Car Dangerous?

Message from Flashman: This is our last update for the 2006-2007 program year. One of our goals with these updates is to provide timely information. Another goal is to show how schools and 4-H Extension are relevant and beneficial to teenagers.

I hope to see many of you in my graduate course, FAM 759, this summer. This course will focus on financial education resources for all age groups; it should help you in teaching the HSFPP and also provide information for you to improve your own financial decisions. For more details, go to Update # 162.

We also have three in-service training sessions scheduled for the summer:

* Daviess County Extension Office, June 13, 2007, 9:00 – 4:00 CDT
* Warren County Extension Office, June 20, 2007, 9:00 – 4:00 CDT
* Perry County Extension Office, June 27, 2007, 9:00 – 4:00 EDT

To sign up for a session, please fill out and submit the form at the following page of our Web site: http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/HSFP/registration.htm. You can check this Web page from time to time for possible additions of sites near you.

County agents, please also sign up on the Extension in-service Web site.

 

Web site Pick of the Week:

http://www.autosafety.org/

The Center for Auto Safety’s Web site provides information on everything related to vehicle safety, including recalls, safety features, and current laws.

 

Activity for Educators:

As a follow-up activity, use the following discussion questions based upon the video produced by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

1.) Why do many teens still drink and drive?

A possible answer to Question # 1 is that bad things only happen to others, and never to me. If you have teens who answer the question this way, they do not understand the consequences of their actions, which the video brings out.

 

2.) Make a list of the various answers that teens give. Then, to get the point across, ask them for suggestions and ideas to overcome misconceptions about Question # 1.

 

3.) What can schools and parents do to make prom night safer?

 

In the New$... Is Using Your Cell Phone in Your Car Dangerous?

by Robert H. Flashman, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service

Talking on the phone while driving is dangerous for any driver, but is especially dangerous for teenage drivers because of their lack of experience and their tendency to lose focus and get distracted. Almost all new cell phone plans now offer text messaging, or “texting”.  A January 2007 survey by the insurer Nationwide found that 19 percent of motorists say they text message while driving. Teens Today survey conducted by the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) showed that teens considered sending text messages via cell phones to be their biggest distraction while driving.

Is talking on the phone or texting while driving worth the risk of having an accident? Driving a car is the most dangerous activity most people undertake in their daily lives, and anything that distracts a driver should be avoided. “A study [conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,] released in April 2006[,] found that almost 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds of the event. ... However, cell-phone use is far less likely to be the cause of a crash or near-miss than other distractions, according to the study. For example, while reaching for a moving object such as a falling cup increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by 9 times, talking or listening on a hand-held cell phone only increased the risk by 1.3 times.”

A good example of other distractions that are more likely to cause accidents is provided by my oldest daughter, who had her driver’s license for less than three months and had an accident. She was listening to the radio and talking to a passenger in the front seat while driving to the mall. She was taking a left turn into the mall parking lot following cars in front of her and did not see the light had changed. The car coming from the other direction could not brake quickly enough because it was raining, and the driver hit the rear door on the passenger side of her car, pushing her car into another car leaving the mall. She was lucky both cars hit the rear doors and no one was hurt in any of the three cars. The insurance company, however, classified the car as a total loss because repairs would have cost more than the vehicle’s then-current market value. She did not have the funds to replace the car and learned the hard way how easy it is to be distracted; she no longer had a car to drive to school.

If you need to use a cell phone, read a map, or do anything else that would distract you, pull over first. Few drivers are able to multitask, so you need to put your full attention on driving; otherwise you will increase the likelihood of becoming involved in a crash. Paying attention when driving could save you thousands of dollars in increased insurance premiums and, more importantly, could save your life or the lives of others.

Sources: “Cell Phones and driving,” in Hot Topics & Issues Updates, Insurance Information Institute, May 2007. http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/cellphones/

 

Discussion Questions:

1.) Do you or any of your friends use a cell phone while driving? Yes ___  No ___

 

2.) Do you think using a cell phone while driving affects the driver’s concentration and focus on the road? Yes ___  No ___ Explain reason.

 

3.) Should Kentucky have a law prohibiting anyone (regardless of age) from using a cell phone while driving? Yes ___  No ___ Explain reason.

 

4.) Why do you think more states have not enacted laws against cell phone use in cars?

 

Activity for Students:

Watch the video, “THINK.Prom,” sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) at the following Web site: http://www.schoolassembly.org/.

Click on “Preview shows and video trailer!” Then click on “THINK.Prom DVD Preview”.

 

Kentucky High School Financial Planning Program

http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/hsfp

The purpose of the HSFPP financial updates, video lessons, and Web site is to assist county Extension agents, credit union educators, high school teachers, and parents who home school their teenagers so that they may improve the economic well-being of our teenagers; and also to show educators how the HSFPP, updates, and video lessons meet Kentucky core concepts. The Web site, updates, and video lessons are provided by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, and are free to all educators. The list of core concepts and order form for free program materials including the student guide and instructors manual can be found on the Kentucky HSFPP home page.

If you are not already on our listserv:

The video lessons are available only to members of our listserv and will not be posted to the HSFPP Web site because of the timeliness of the information. If you would like to receive our video lessons, which are sent to our listserv biweekly, on alternate weeks from these updates, please sign up at the following page of our Web site: http://www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/HSFP/response.htm.