
Smartphones Are Killing Americans, but Nobody’s Counting - fmihaila
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-17/smartphones-are-killing-americans-but-nobody-s-counting
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thomk
I started a new job where I drive at a minimum 1 hour to work, one way. I'm
now on the road anywhere from a minimum of 2 hours to 3 hours every work day.
I've bee working from home for 5 years prior to this new job and I can tell
you, for sure, things have changed.

People are looking at their phones, talking on their phones and in general not
paying attention to the weapon they are driving 80 MPH down the freeway.
There's an accident on the way there and on the way home just about every day.

I think if you look at your phone about as much as you look at your
speedometer or other in-car gauges, you are probably OK. That does not mean
looking at texts, facebook, email and it definitely does not mean typing on
your phone.

Self driving cars can't come fast enough for me.

~~~
jakeogh
You should not be driving if looking at your phone is on par with checking
gauges unless you practically never check your gauges.

And they are not "self driving", they are pre-programmed dumb machines.

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diogenescynic
Actually, South Park just made an episode about this. Everyone was freaking
out about North Korea while others were getting run over from distracted
drivers without anyone noticing.

~~~
kfriede
But suicide is important too!

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zeveb
It really has become a massive problem. I have a very short commute, and I
regularly see traffic delays due to people reading their phones rather than
paying attention to driving. I've even seen folks miss their entire light
(with angry drivers behind them!) because they were reading. At least the
stuff I see is mostly folks stopped, rather than moving.

I don't think laws & punishments will work — they're after-the-fact, and I
don't think people rationally consider the possible costs when they perform an
action. I think the answer has to be, as the article suggests, changing the
culture.

~~~
carlmr
I often look at the mirror to see the driver behind me.

I recently see people looking down and up and down a lot.

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HeyLaughingBoy
Ugh!

I drive to a Park & Ride location and take an express bus into the city. From
my perch high above the traffic, I can easily see into the cars and I'd say
that at any given time, at least 40% of all the drivers are staring at their
phones. Not just in stop & go traffic either, but blasting down the highway at
80 mph.

It's amazing that there aren't even more accidents.

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taobility
"Firearm are killing Americans, but Nobody's counting"

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zimpenfish
Whilst the headline is technically accurate for the 448 incidents noted, the
article doesn't really back up its claims that this is a much more widespread
problem.

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carlmr
It does, it mentions Tennessee is accounting for 19% of cell-phone deaths with
only 2% of the country's population. Tennessee being the only state really
collecting the data on the form, means it's the most reliable data we have to
extrapolate to the whole country.

It seems there is a factor of 10 of underreporting, which would lead to the
actual number of cell phone deaths being closer to 4000, making this one of
the major causes of death on the road.

~~~
zimpenfish
> it's the most reliable data we have to extrapolate to the whole country.

Which only works if the rest of the country is like Tennessee - you'd have to
show your working there.

> It seems there is a factor of 10 of underreporting

Where do you see that number? All I can find about underreporting is the
unsubstantiated claim by Adkins.

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carlmr
Does Tennessee have excessively more smartphones than the rest of the country?
I'd say it's the best basis for extrapolating we have right now.

We'd need tighter regulation, so that we can collect the data.

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acd
The ”smartphone” is not always smart as it distracts you from family, friends
and talking to strangers.

So one could say the smartphone in some senses are a dumb phone.

~~~
squarefoot
"So one could say the smartphone in some senses are a dumb phone."

To me smartphones are just like those alien creatures that feed off the user
vital energy, but they instead absorb brain power: the more smart they become,
the more dumb the user becomes.

