Time for INSP to dump their "wireless" strategy???
Is 60% of ALL cell phone use now in jeopardy?
Heck, just as INSP is planning for a massive roll-out of their cutting-edge, state-of-the-art (even "patented") incredibly compelling "wireless" e-coupon paperless promotion part their "new and improved" business model.
And I was so looking forward to scrolling through all those new thousands of "Alerts" from INSP on my cell phone, while screaming down the freeway, hair blowing in the wind without a care in the world...And perhaps if lucky, even finding a "paperless coupon" from the nearest Baskin-Robbins, offering me 7 or 8 cents off their double-scoop chocolate-chip-mint ice cream cone...if I can just take a very hard right at the next freeway exit.
But then the following article comes out today, and completely ruined my entire day. Just how the heck can INSP make any "wireless" profits now? And it sure looks like fertile ground for an entire new round of massive class-action lawsuits...keeping tens of thousands of starving attorneys off the streets for decades to come (i.e. Senior Citizen Sues for Head-on Crash While Distracted by Cell Phone E-Coupon Viagra Discount "Alert"):
seattletimes.nwsource.com
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Friday, August 17, 2001, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
STUDY FINDS HANDS-FREE CELL PHONES NOT ANY SAFER
By Elizabeth Douglass
Los Angeles Times
Driving performance drops significantly when a driver is on a cell phone, regardless of whether a headset or other hands-free device is being used, according to a new safety study released yesterday.
The study, conducted by University of Utah researchers and released by the National Safety Council, contradicts conventional wisdom that headsets and hands-free phones are safer than regular cell phones, which often require users to take one hand off the steering wheel.
At least a dozen localities and 23 foreign countries have established various bans on using cell phones while driving, and at least 39 states are considering similar legislation. New York recently became the first state to pass a law outlawing handheld phones while driving.
In Seattle, City Council staff members are working on similar legislation, as recommended by Councilman Jim Compton.
"All of the laws that have been proposed or enacted, they all make the assumption that it's holding the phone that is the problem," said David Strayer, a psychology professor and lead author of the study. "Now the research community is coming out and saying, `No, it's not just that. You are impaired to dangerous levels when you are just conversing on the telephone.' "
The bottom line of the new study: "People were four times more likely to get in an accident using a hands-free device" than if not talking on a phone, Strayer said. He added that the probability is the same for handheld phones.
That finding puts wireless phone companies in a tough spot because at least one study found that their customers do as much as 60 percent of their talking while in a car. For the companies, the cell-phone bans with hands-free exceptions have represented a livable compromise, especially because of their side benefit of boosting sales of headsets, voice-dialing and other products.
Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS and others typically offer a $5 discount on the purchase of a hands-free device and give out pamphlets on safe-driving with their phones. Sprint PCS also is planning a seminar for employers concerned about the risk--and liability--of employees using cell phones on the road.
The industry's primary trade group, the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, has been issuing safe-driving tips for years. But it also has lobbied against the growing wave of cell-phone bans in cars.
In response to the Utah study, the trade group reiterated its safe-driving tips and argued that "any activity a driver engages in, besides the task of driving, has the potential to distract. ... Therefore, we must remind drivers that their primary responsibility is to drive safely."
The trade group often argues that cell-phone use is just one of long list of driver distractions that can include everything from applying makeup or shaving, to drinking coffee or changing a compact disc.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that driver distraction -- including talking, eating, reading or even changing radio stations -- is involved in 20 percent to 30 percent of all crashes.
But Strayer's study found cell-phone use significantly more distracting than other activities.
The initial phase of the Utah study included 64 undergraduate participants and tested their driving skills while talking on a cell phone, tuning a radio and listening to a book on tape.
Driving performance was measured using a computer-simulated driving scene that tested reaction times to traffic lights and so forth. The study, completed two years ago, used joystick controls and a "brake button," not actual car controls.
Studies using simulators with real brake pedals and steering wheels have reaffirmed earlier findings, Strayer said. A complete report will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
The Associated Press and The Seattle Times staff contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company |
