Most Drivers Admit They're Road Risks

ap ^ | 5-27-04 | Dee-Ann Durbin

[Dan from Michigan]

Most Drivers Admit They're Road Risks

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A majority of drivers admit they routinely speed, eat or even read while driving in a new poll designed to measure drivers' attitudes about safety.

Ninety-one percent of drivers of all ages acknowledged at least one risky activity in the previous six months, including 71 percent who said they sped; 59 percent who ate while driving; 37 percent who used a cell phone; 28 percent who wore no seatbelt and 26 percent who used no signal when turning. Fourteen percent admitted to reading while driving.

At the same time, drivers were likely to say that someone else on the road is more dangerous than they are. Drivers ages 26-44 were most likely to engage in risky driving, but when that age group was asked which drivers should be retested to make sure they're driving safely, 83 percent said seniors and 69 percent said teens. Only 56 percent said everyone should be retested.

"We worry about the car, the weather, the driver in front or behind us. But we don't spend nearly enough time worrying about our own driving habits," said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.

Of those 65 and older, 68 percent said teens should be retested and 59 percent said seniors should be retested. Of those under 26, 83 percent said seniors should be retested and 47 percent said teens should be retested.

The survey, released Tuesday, was conducted for Volvo Cars of North America, AAA and Partners for Highway Safety as part of a new safety campaign.

The groups plan a Web site that invites drivers to test their knowledge of safe driving habits and learn about safe driving techniques. The group also plans to air a half-hour television special this summer on safe driving.

"So far, the focus has been on making cars and roads safer," AAA Vice President Susan Pikrallidas said. "But driving is a complex task and many of us have poor driving habits."

The drivers polled also said drivers have gotten more dangerous. Of those polled, 81 percent said cars are safer than in the past and 57 percent said roads are safer, but only 27 percent said drivers are safer.

The poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. from May 13 to 16. It questioned 1,100 drivers ages 16 or older and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

[HairOfTheDog]

Yeah - bad headline.... most drivers admit to the activities, not that doing them, at the time and way they did them, was a particular risk.

Face it... we have a thousand opportunities to make a mistake every time we drive. A safe look down to change the radio station one day could be fatal the next day when in that second the truck in the next lane over decides to move over and you saw too late.

Life is risky... driving at the speeds we do in close proximity to other cars is much of that risk. As many cars as are on I-5 between Tacoma and Seattle, I am amazed there aren't MORE accidents than there are.

I am a better driver than most people I know. I know what is happening directly in front, on either side, behind and and a quarter mile in ahead of me all at the same time. And yet I drive too fast sometimes and I talk on the phone often. Division of attention is an acquired skill, one I learned learning to fly, where you can't just stop for a minute to have a conversation, you learn to fly first, look for traffic, navigate, tune radios, note times, set instruments and talk at the same time. But I have seen people at the office talking on the phone who are so focused, they don't ever see me walk in right in front of them until I 'suddenly appear' and scare them. Those guys, probably can't drive and talk on the phone.

[Bob Mc]

Well, at least you had your seat belt on. We wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.

>sarcasm off

[laker_dad]

Actually, I had to take it off to get the cell phone out of my pocket...

[ralph rotten]

Between Lansing and Owosso as well.---It was M-47 in my school days at MSC

[RikaStrom]

LOL, knowing you, you are composing a letter to the editor, after you've had a coniption fit reading one! ;-)

[dufekin]

26% used no signal while turning?

What--73% used signals improperly. Or at least so it is in Pennsylvania. So let me tell you how to use signals properly while turning. Not that I'm not guilty and shouldn't be hauled to jail for several hundred years for my violations.

(1) You must signal BEFORE you turn. Signals don't say, "I just turned right/left;" they say, "I will turn right/left." That's why they're called signals. They signal your intentions; others have more obvious means of telling that you're turning once you've actually turned the steering wheel. In fact, you must begin signalling several hundred feet before the intersection, the exact requirement of which may vary from state to state.

(2) You must QUIT signalling AFTER completing the turn. There's little more annoying than following drivers with their turn signal blinking for miles before they turn. Once the turn is completed, the signal is moot.

(3) You must signal ONLY IN THE SAME DIRECTION that you will turn. This should be obvious, but I see numerous violations almost every week.

(4) You must turn FROM THE CORRECT LANE.

(5) You may have to signal to change lanes, depending upon the state in which you change lanes.

(6) You must follow appropriate traffic-control devices; and must STOP at STOP signs and RED lights.

[Francohio]

You must wear a seat belt because if you are killed in an accident in which you are at fault, suing your estate is too difficult for the other victims' lawyer.

Also, collecting traffic fines from the dead is practically impossible. It is apparently much less difficult to register a dead guy to vote, then to wring any traffic fine money from him.

I hope I have made it clear to you why it is your civic duty to survive car crashes. If not, I am sure some other air bag on this site will.

In the meantime, I must rush off to a MADD meeting (on foot). Here in Ohio, it is possible to get a DUI for using aftershave lotion, or watching a beer commercial.

[Dan from Michigan]

You hear me yelling from I-96 in Michigan?

[an amused spectator]

The Montana "paradox" is an example of Americans discovering that the Autobahns they copied from Germany DO work as intended, when they are used as they were originally designed--for high speed and low congestion, which of course go hand in hand. The cynical hypotheses that a driver in his own car seeing the road and cars around him isn't as good a decision maker about how to operate his own car as a judge sitting on a wooden bench in a remote location, under fluorescent lights, all day, is not only not supported by the data: it is repugnant to the US Constitution. Bureaucrats and lawmakers must think that as soon as a responsible citizen gets into his car, he suddenly becomes a child who has to have bureaucrats making decisions for him which even children are capable of making in their own sand boxes without the aid of the law.

[RikaStrom]

Heck yes! I recognized your voice right away.... it was the **&^%$%&&** that did it. lol

You ought to hear me when my radio station does one of the morning news stories. My station is massively conservative, and the reports say with the most sarcastic tone of voice, but still my blood pressure rises.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Here's my pet peeve:
I'm sitting at a Stop sign, waiting to make a left turn. There is a car approaching from my left. I wait patiently for him to go past me, but, low and behold!--he is making a right turn onto the very street where I am sitting. Had he signaled his intention to turn, I could have made my left and gotten on with my life. But, apparently, it was a secret. It takes a great deal of effort to lift one's finger two inches and move that little turn signal thingie.

[At a Later Date]

"Here's my pet peeve: I'm sitting at a Stop sign, waiting to make a left turn. There is a car approaching from my left. I wait patiently for him to go past me, but, low and behold!--he is making a right turn onto the very street where I am sitting. Had he signaled his intention to turn, I could have made my left and gotten on with my life."

---

I know what you mean, however, you have to watch those people who have their turn signals on and DON'T make the turn. You know, the ones who often forget to turn off their signal... If the signal's not for real, that's a recipe for disaster.

[HairOfTheDog]

*Safe driver tip* From my driving teacher (my dad) to you:

You shouldn't turn until he starts his turn anyway, even if he did signal.... easy way to get clobbered right in your door by a guy who is going straight but whose signal has been blinking for the last 5 miles.

He might also be signaling for the driveway that is just past your stop sign.

[HairOfTheDog]

HA! - I got him on the same point.

[an amused spectator]

I call it "Road Rage Enforcement". You are REQUIRED to stuff the guy next to you into the back of the guy going 67 in the slow lane on I-96. Too bad if the road is clear and dry, and visibility is 10 miles.

If you attempt to drive intelligently, the "Alternate Road Tax" may kick in. I say they should issue big stickers for people who want to drive 80, and bigger stickers for people who want to drive 90. Just pay the fee, instead of all the pretentious bullClinton which only applies to the "little people" anyway.

[an amused spectator]

But, apparently, it was a secret. It takes a great deal of effort to lift one's finger two inches and move that little turn signal thingie.

These things are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO complicated, dontchaknow.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Very well put. Some people seem to think that a turn-signal is this light you blink to celebrate the fact that you have just made a turn. Like everyone is supposed to clap when they see someone turn on the celebratory turn-signal.

I think the most dangerous thing is when you have a group of cars that are following one-another too closely. A couple of times a year there is a bad multiple-car -- usually mulitple-fatality -- accident on the Interstate near where I live. It is almost always avoidable. Someone's tire blew or someone swerved to avoid an animal. Instead of this being a one-car incident (something the driver should recover control from), you have six cars slamming into each other and at least a couple of broken bodies flying thorough windshields or doors that flung open. I mean, you can drive fast and still not be a foot behind the other guy's bumper. I am amazed at seeing a group of cars going along at 75 mph with scarcely a yard between them. What are the drivers thinking? It is almost like people want to die.

[an amused spectator]

Further ruminations: The annoying person in front of you who has dropped 10-15 miles an hour below the speed limit for no reason is almost certainly within a mile or two of home.

[HairOfTheDog]

I am amazed at seeing a group of cars going along at 75 mph with scarcely a yard between them. What are the drivers thinking?

My pet peeve too.... and one I am not quiet about when riding with someone else. It scares the daylights out of me how closely people are willing to follow. I am a fast lane driver, but I keep a very safe distance between me an the car in front of me, and even further if it is a large vehicle that I can't see through to the situation ahead of it. I feel no sympathy for the guy flashing his lights at me from behind because he sees space and thinks I am going to slow... I am going the same speed as the guy in front of me, I am just not on his bumper.

[an amused spectator]

I am amazed at seeing a group of cars going along at 75 mph with scarcely a yard between them. What are the drivers thinking? It is almost like people want to die.

see my post #35, and read about the Montana paradox above it.

The police and the courts are complicit in this business, because it is business.

Local Beautification & Police Retirement Fund, dontchaknow.