Your Attention Is Mandatory – Now! Driving along, we want to hear a certain song, or make a phone call, or get some information, etc., so we initiate interaction with a digital gizmo.  That’s usually easy enough, but what follows frequently isn’t.

Seven Fundamental Facts About Distracted Driving 1. The distractions are not the problem.

“Well, It’s a Dumb Law!” People bridle at laws they do not understand and obey them only if closely and constantly monitored and/or threatened with severe penalties.

Ring, Ring, Nobody Home The problem with car phones is not how many hands the driver keeps on the steering wheel.

Driving Distractions A 2005 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute Study on driver distraction gives scientific support to the decades-old folk wisdom that driving is a full-time job.  Virginia Tech, however does not explain why drivers are so distracted.  The truth is that they choose to be.

We’re Distracted from Solving Distracted Driving “Why do firemen wear red suspenders?  To hold their pants up.”  The humor in that old joke results from using the word “red.”  It focuses our attention on the color of the suspenders rather than on their purpose.  It distracts us from the obvious truth.

“An Idle Mind Is the Devil’s Workshop” or The Origin of Distracted Driving View this 10 1/2 minute DVD that talks straight about distracted driving.  It was made especially for the 2009 Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, D.C. by Kenneth L. Zuber of The Helios Institute.

Wrong-headed Leadership on Distracted Driving

Don’t do that!  It’s wrong!  Don’t do that; you’ll get hurt!  Don’t do that; it’s not nice!  Don’t do that; it’s illegal!  Don’t do that, because I said so!  DON’T DO THAT!