Bad for Road Safety; Texting While Driving Legal in the Sunshine State

There is not much room for debate any more about whether texting while driving is a dangerous practice.

2013-01-19

CLEARWATER, FL, January 19, 2013 (Press-News.org) The federal government has centralized distracted-driving data from a variety of sources on its website devoted to preventing this behavior, reporting such findings as:

- Texting while driving increases the risk of having a car accident by a disturbing 23 times.
- Texting removes a motor-vehicle operator's eyes from the roadway on average for 4.6 seconds, which is enough time to drive a football-field length at 55 mph.
- Driving and "using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent."

Almost all states have legislation outlawing some type of cell phone use while driving, but Florida has not hopped on the bandwagon.

A Florida distracted driving lawsuit

CBS Miami reported in November 2012 about a heartbreaking accident involving texting behind the wheel. One September 2008 evening, a reportedly texting teenage driver was speeding and hit the vehicle of an older couple who was driving home, killing the wife instantly. The family filed a lawsuit and a jury awarded $8.8 million in damages.

The legislative battle

According to the CBS Miami article, legislators have been unable to get bills passed that would ban texting while driving because of the sentiment of opponents who believe it would be an encroachment on personal liberties.

Specifically, the Star-Banner in Ocala quotes the new speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, as citing drivers' "individual rights" as the reason he opposes banning texting while driving.

News reports indicate that a flurry of legislative action by members of both main political parties will raise the issue again in newly proposed bills in the next legislative session, beginning in March 2013.

The Tampa summit

Tampa was the site of the November 2012 Florida Distracted Driving Summit at which U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urged Florida legislators to enact a "distracted driving law." Federal grant money is available to states that do just that in 2013.

Safety advocates will watch the 2013 Florida legislative session with keen interest to see whether texting while driving is finally outlawed in the state. In the meantime, even if such behavior is not a driving infraction, it may still be considered negligent or reckless behavior by a jury in a personal injury lawsuit. If you or a loved one is hurt by a distracted driver in a motor vehicle accident, consult an experienced Florida personal injury attorney to understand your legal options for recovering damages.

Website: www.careyandleisure.com

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Reputation Advocate Cites Online Attacks of Iowa Dentist as a Warning

2013-01-19

According to Steven Wyer, Managing Director at Reputation Advocate, Inc., Dr. James H. Knight hails from Fort Dodge, Iowa where he was a popular dentist. His personal integrity is now under scrutiny after terminating an employee for dressing too provocatively. The firing took place at the request of Dr. Knight's wife who felt Melissa Nelson was becoming too attached to the dentist and believed her to be a threat to the marriage. What happened next is a cautionary tale for all professionals. Dr. Knight's practice was pacing steadily, with Knight no doubt looking forward ...

Staten Island Mold Inspection Company Updates Professional Certifications, OSHA Registrations, FEMA Registrations for Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts

2013-01-19

New York Mold Inspection, Mold Testing, and Mold Removal Company adopts the latest OSHA standards for occupation during their mold remediation processes. Mold abatement experts are bound to encounter not just mold spores, but asbestos and a whole slew of other biological contaminants during the mold remediation process. For this reason, OSHA has come up with standards that must be followed during any mold remediation project. The safety precautions also spillover into what it means for a home or business owner. The mold testing experts will decide along with the homeowner ...

UA explores promoting teen health via text message

2013-01-18

Teenagers spend a lot of time texting, receiving an average of 3,417 texts a month, or 114 per day, according to the Nielsen consumer research group. A new study from the University of Arizona looks at the feasibility of using text messaging to deliver educational information about nutrition and physical activity to teens. The study, which appears in the January-February issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, looks at whether teenagers would be interested in receiving texts about health on their phones and how they would like those messages presented. Conducted ...

Abortions are safe when performed by advanced practice nurses and physician assistants, study shows

2013-01-18

First trimester abortions are just as safe when performed by trained nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse midwives as when conducted by physicians, according to a new six-year study led by UCSF. The study posted online today in the American Journal of Public Health in advance of the print edition. The publication comes a week before the 40th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in the United States. Currently in the United States, a patchwork of state regulations determines who can ...

Exposure to COI policies during residency reduces rate of brand antidepressant prescriptions

2013-01-18

Philadelphia – Psychiatrists who are exposed to conflict-of-interest (COI) policies during their residency are less likely to prescribe brand-name antidepressants after graduation than those who trained in residency programs without such policies, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The study is the first of its kind to show that exposure to COI policies for physicians during residency training – in this case, psychiatrists – is effective in lowering their post-graduation rates of prescriptions ...

Powerful people better at shaking off rebuffs, bonding with others

2013-01-18

Employees often tiptoe around their bosses for fear of offending them. But new research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows people in power have thicker skin than one might think. A UC Berkeley study has found that people in authority positions – whether at home or in the workplace - are quicker to recover from mild rejection, and will seek out social bonding opportunities even if they've been rebuffed. "Powerful people appear to be better at dealing with the slings and arrows of social life, they're more buffered from the negative feelings that rejection ...

Physical and sexual assault linked to increased suicide risk in military

2013-01-18

According to results of a new study by researchers at the University of Utah, military personnel experience increased risk of suicidal thoughts or actions if they were the victims of physical or violent sexual assault as adults. In contrast, undergraduate students experience increased risk of suicidal thoughts or actions if they were the victims of unwanted sexual experiences as children or adults. While other research has shown that victims of sexual or physical assault are at increased risk of health problems—including suicide—the majority of that work has focused on ...

Melt ponds cause the Artic sea ice to melt more rapidly

2013-01-18

The Arctic sea ice has not only declined over the past decade but has also become distinctly thinner and younger. Researchers are now observing mainly thin, first-year ice floes which are extensively covered with melt ponds in the summer months where once metre-thick, multi-year ice used to float. Sea ice physicists at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), have now measured the light transmission through the Arctic sea ice for the first time on a large scale, enabling them to quantify consequences of this change. They come to ...

Which nutritional factors help preserve muscle mass, strength and performance in seniors?

2013-01-18

January 17, 2013--Nyon, Switzerland Sarcopenia, or the gradual loss of muscle mass, is a common consequence of ageing, and poses a significant risk factor for disability in older adults. As muscle strength plays an important role in the tendency to fall, sarcopenia leads to an increased risk of fractures and other injuries. The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Nutrition Working Group has published a new review which identifies nutritional factors that contribute to loss of muscle mass, or conversely, are beneficial to the maintenance of muscle mass. The Group ...

Cell: Protein folding via charge zippers

2013-01-18

This press release is available in German. Membrane proteins are the "molecular machines" in biological cell envelopes. They control diverse processes, such as the transport of molecules across the lipid membrane, signal transduction, and photosynthesis. Their shape, i.e. folding of the molecules, plays a decisive role in the formation of, e.g., pores in the cell membrane. In the Cell magazine, researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Cagliari are now reporting a novel charge zipper principle used by proteins to form functional units ...

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Bad for Road Safety; Texting While Driving Legal in the Sunshine State

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: