Distracted Driving

Casey Feldman planned the summer between her junior and senior years at Fordham University on the New Jersey shore, working the last “non-aggravation” job she wanted as a young adult. The aspiring reporter racked up internships at newspapers, bylines at local papers and Philadelphia...Read More»

Come Jan. 1, 2020, it will be illegal to use a cellphone while while at the wheel of a car in Virginia. Both houses in the General Assembly voted to pass new legislation to ban cellphone use while driving to curb distracted driving in the state. The Washington Post reported last week that drivers...Read More»

It turns out that Apple iPhone users aren't enabling the "Do Not Disturb" mode that silences calls and text messages when the smartphone thinks its owner may be driving. The IIHS published last week the results of a study of 800 respondents showing only 1 in 5 iPhone users had the function enabled...Read More»

The results of an online study released Tuesday contradict the popular stereotype that younger drivers are more likely to be distracted by their cellphones than older drivers. In every use case—from talking on the phone to checking social media—Generation X and millennial drivers showed...Read More»

Georgia drivers caught using handheld cellphones will soon be subject to a fine. A ban signed into law Wednesday by Governor Nathan Deal makes handheld phone use illegal beginning July 1. The move makes Georgia the 16th state with a handheld cellphone ban and it's the most dramatic measure against...Read More»

The federal government has released its statistical analysis of every fatal crash in 2016, and the results are surprising. The number of fatal accidents per mile traveled increased by 2.6 percent compared to 2015—and it’s not because of distracted drivers. The total number of fatal...Read More»

Mobile phones are great, aren't they? Twenty years ago, who could have imagined the joys of getting stuck in a group text with a dozen family members, including three or four retirees who have nothing better to do than send out barrages of LOLs and misused emojis? Who dared to envision the...Read More»

Distracted driving has been a problem since the first motorists slid behind steering wheels. Eating, smoking, talking to friends, and flipping through radio stations have caused countless accidents over the years and an untold number of deaths. But the situation has become worse with the rise of...Read More»

Nissan thinks that it's found the solution to the problem of distracted driving: a new and improved armrest. "New and improved" are relative terms in this case, because the technology behind Nissan's armrest is nearly 200 years old. Of course, distracted driving isn't a new problem, either: eating...Read More»

The history of humankind has been fraught with tension--not tension between tribes or fiefdoms or nation-states, but between our desire to avoid death and our innate urge to scream, "Look, ma, no hands!" Case in point: texting and driving. It's dumb. It's dangerous. It's deadly. We all know that...Read More»

Like their counterparts around the world, officials in the United Kingdom are sick and tired of distracted driving. Sadly, education campaigns haven't done much to encourage drivers to stop texting and checking email behind the wheel--in fact, the number of motorists who admit to using a mobile...Read More»

It'll probably be another week or two before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration releases its official stats on 2015 traffic fatalities. However, early data suggests a significant uptick from 2014--potentially 7.7 percent or higher. What's to blame for that sharp increase? According...Read More»

We're in the midst of a distracted driving crisis, and mobile phones are largely to blame. Motorists young and old can't seem to resist the temptation to check text messages, email, and social media when they're behind the wheel. As the New York Times recently noted, mobile networks and phone...Read More»

The problem of texting and driving isn't limited to the U.S.--not by a long shot. Great Britain is taking steps to discourage the practice by boosting fines and potentially revoking licences. Currently, British drivers face fines of £100 ($130) and three points on their licenses if they're...Read More»

Analysts may be feeling bearish about Apple's lack of innovation on the iPhone front, but smartphones aren't going anywhere anytime soon--and neither are apps. On the one hand, that's a good thing, because many of us depend on those apps for navigation, communication, entertainment, and...Read More»

No matter what some politicians say, America is already great at many things--for example, fostering innovation, generating game-changing technology, and finding new uses for Twinkies. However, that's not to say that we don't have room for improvement in areas like energy efficiency, education, and...Read More»

Depending on your perspective (and possibly, your age), Pokemon Go is either the worst trend to hit America since Car Lashes, or it's a fantastic game that encourages sedentary teens and Millennials to get out of the house and be social. No matter which camp you fall into, though, one thing's for...Read More»

The name Cellebrite might not ring any bells, but you've probably heard about the company. It's the Israeli firm that's rumored to have helped the FBI hack into the iPhone 5c involved in the shootings that took place last December in San Bernadino, California. Whether or not those rumors are true...Read More»