New in-dash items that go into a car's dashboard, are supposed to make driving safer, but could pose an even bigger distraction for drivers.
When you're driving or riding down the road, you expect the other drivers are paying attention to what they're doing, but with fancier cell phones and other electronic gadgets that plug into your car, or even built into them, there is a chance they might not be as attentive as you'd like.
St. Peter's Hospital Chief of Emergency Medicine Dr. Samuel Bosco says distracted driving is serious business.
“Nationally we see about 15 deaths daily from causes of distracted driving, and over 5,000 deaths annually on our nation's highways,” says Dr. Samuel Bosco.
To try and combat roadway distraction, most carmakers are offering dashboard-based hands-free systems. For example, many Ford vehicles offer options that allow you to make phone calls, have text messages read to you, call up music, and even adjusting the climate control with your voice.
Brian Randino has one of those cars, “There's no more looking down at the stereo or anything like that. There's no more picking up my phone just to see who called or what text message or anything. I can just simply hit a button on the steering wheel where my hands already are and talk to the car and it responds.”
Justin Matuszek of Orange Ford says the automaker has been pushing these safety options and offering tutorials at purchase and online.
“Over the last three years, it's become something that when people come in they say, we want SYNC,” said Matuszek. “For their children for instance that they know are going to be driving their car. We know our car is safe because our child's going to be able to, if I send him a text, he's not going to have to look at his phone.”
Ford also runs a national driving skills course that recently stopped in Colonie to teach younger drivers to dealing with issues behind the wheel, especially texting while driving.
Lead instructor Mike Speck says it is about making sure they keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road since stats show car crashes kill 6,000 teens a year.
“Through fun, we have a conduit to their brain and can teach them more readily,” said Speck. “I think when we catch them at a point where they've had so much driving experience but not so much that they've settled into bad habits, that's where we're trying to tackle the issue.”
Dr. Samuel Bosco says all of these hands-free systems are a big help, but hands off still doesn't always mean attention on.
“Think hard when you get behind the wheel and try to focus on what you're doing behind the wheel and not on other things,” says Dr. Bosco.
