This graphic video on the dangers of texting and driving has been viewed more than 4 million times according to an article in Monday’s New York Times.
But Anne T. McCarr, a senior vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, explained to the paper why the video will likely do little to curtail this dangerous habit: ”When you look at something like cellphone use or texting, most people already know these behaviors are not safe, but they do them anyway…the challenge in highway safety is that we do unsafe things day after day and don’t end up in a crash, and so I think, over time, people go back to their everyday behaviors.”
She’s right. Negative sanctions need to be put in place for those who cause accidents while texting but this will achieve only limited success because of our inability to apply consistent, immediate consequences to the unsafe behavior. Because of this lack of consistent enforcement people will find clever ways to text without getting caught.
Unfortunately, texting while driving is one of the many cases where technology has advanced more rapidly than the ability to manage the behavior associated with it. The most effective short-term solution is a technological one that disables texting while the car is moving, much like the built-in GPS systems in cars that don’t allow input while the car is in motion.
Beyond the debate over texting and driving, however, the video does remind us that scare tactics alone do little to stop unsafe behavior in the workplace as everyone feels that they do things in a safe way… until they have an accident or are injured.
Rules and policies are a crucial first step to a safe environment, but a system that makes people want to comply with those rules is the key to creating a safety culture. Behavior-based safety systems, if set up correctly, do provide a much needed answer.
For more on how to create a “culture of safe habits,” read Removing Obstacles to Safey: A Behavior-Based Approach by my colleague Judy Agnew.
Related posts:
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- Breaking News: Texting while driving is dangerous. Duh! Anyone who understands anything about behavior knows that the latest...
- Do Relationships Matter in Safety? When it comes to safety, organizations need more than just...
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September 16, 2009 at 1:23 pm
We have an article about this in our October issue and it is indeed a large problem. I agree that laws may not have enormous impact, but it’s probably important to at least get them on the books. Right now, I think it’s only 17 states that expressly ban texting while driving.
Sure, it won’t change things immediately, but neither did seat belts. It takes time and seat belt usage is now almost universal, which is huge even compared to the cavalier attitude towards it in the 90s. Maybe more importantly, every state putting a law on the book would spur innovation that could help users not text and drive. How about a hands-free, voice-activated Blue-tooth type thing that types what you say and sends it as a text rather than a voice mail? That’s probably not realistic in 2009, but it should be by 2011 or whenever.
September 16, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I agree with your points. I thank you for a thoughtful response.
Because of the inability to observe drivers when they are, or are not, texting, a penalty system of some kind may be the thing that will have some early impact. It will be slow to produce results, as you say, because of the small number of people who will actually get caught compared to those who don’t. You are right about seatbelts and I think the thing that helped it get momentum was the fact that parents saw the need to buckle children up and that caused children to put consequences on their parents – “Daddy, why aren’t you wearing your seatbelt?” In addition the schools taught children to monitor adult compliance. To my knowledge there is no concerted effort like this about texting and the largest category of violators are younger people.
I also believe, as you say, that the best solution will be a technological one. If the designers of cell-phones had known behavioral analysis, they would have already developed technology to solve this problem. It is easy enough to create a phone that will not work when the auto is in motion. A hands-free system that converts voice to text is a real option and may be on the design board already.
This is a case where behavioral technology and cell-phone can come together to solve a serious societal problem.
Thanks again for you comment.
Aubrey