The Courant-Grunion (Est. 1988)
NTSB Report: Texting-While-Driving No Longer No. 1 Cause of
Phone-Related Traffic Fatalities
By Trevor N. Deavor
The National Traffic Safety Board released new Traffic
Fatality statistics for the first half of 2015 on Friday. This study provided
an in-depth analysis of Phone-Related Traffic Deaths from Jan. 1 through June
30, 2015.
“Phone-related traffic deaths are sky-rocketing,” NTSB Spokesman
Simon Hoche-Weg said, reading a pre-written statement. “But
Texting-While-Driving and simply talking on the phone are no longer the primary
factors. Texting fell to number seven on the list, while talking on the phone
dropped from the top ten altogether.
This year, the number one cause of Phone-Related driving
deaths is “Liking and Sharing” blessings either from Jesus, or promises of
money, edging out the nearly-as popular “Liking” memes in support of President
Obama. Anti-Obama Meme-liking came in a close third place.
“People are using their phones for everything from online
shopping to uploading videos while they’re driving,” Hoche-Weg said. “This is
becoming something of an epidemic.”
According to the Hoche-Weg, the most frequent texted or
posted comment that winds up being somebody’s last is “Lol.”
“The worst part about this is, they don’t even take the time
to make the 'LOL' all-caps,” said Belinda Sharon, director of Moms Against Cellular
Devices Allowing Death and Dismemberment of Youth (MACDADDY.) “If you’re going
to die for your text, at least go out with class.”
Sharon said she hopes to implement Death-While-Texting etiquette courses at all community colleges by next Spring Quarter.
"America needs to be number one at something, and proper Text-techniques while dying seems like a good place to start," she said.
The following are the top ten ways people die while driving
and using their phones from 1/1/15 to 6/30/15.
#1 Liking and Sharing
a blessing 1,045,221
#2 Liking a Pro-Obama
Meme 1,022,159
#3 Liking an
Anti-Obama Meme 1,009,566
#4 Tweeting a “Driver
Selfie” 988,134
#5 SnapChatting
yourself singing along to Justin Bieber 887,622
#6 Downloading a song
you just heard on the radio 672,421
#7
Texting-While-Driving (80% “Lol.”) 528,425
#8 Playing
Words-With-Friends/Trivia Crack/Candy Crush 465,883
#9 Google-Searching the
word “Side Boob” or “Under Boob” 446,785
#10 Deleting History
of recent Google Searches 389,799
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