Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

About a year ago, authorities nixed the statewide system that allowed teens to take their learner-permit driving exam online. Well, the tests are to be back online in an attempt to appeal to the keyboarding generation, to provide more convenience to the customer and to reduce the wait at some of our local Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles offices. But will these online tests encourage cheating and increase our teens risk for a car accident in Fort Myers and elsewhere in Florida?

The program was initially pulled from the Internet because officials discovered that roughly 40 percent of teens who passed the exam online failed it in person at the DMV, according to the News-Press.

Our Cape Coral car accident attorneys understand that teens require every bit of driving training available to prepare them for the dangers they’ll inevitably face on our roadways. Rep. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton isn’t too thrilled about the decision. He has become an advocate for teen road safety ever since his teenage daughter died in a car accident. He believes that the decision to put these tests back online is a move that no parent in their right mind would approve. Gov. Rick Scott recently signed it into law.

“This sets road safety back 10 years,” Slosberg said.

Teens will no longer have to study and memorize important road rules for fear of failing the test. Online testing allows for these tests to be an “open book” opportunity.

It’s estimated that roughly 70,000 teens each year apply for a Florida learner-permit.

The online written exam includes 40 multiple-choice questions. Half of them cover road rules and half cover road signs. Teens can only miss 5 questions on each half.

“I’ve had students fail it repeatedly right up to the last day of class,” said Lake Worth High driver education instructor Sam Howell, who has taught the class for 34 years. “The thing I don’t like about it is there’s nobody monitoring the test, so we truly know who took it, or that they didn’t get any help.”

The DMV understands teen’s temptation to cheat and asks that parents do their best to stop it from happening. To help enforce this, the new testing system will hold parents more accountable. The DMV warns that if an applicant is found to have cheated, the parent’s license could be suspended.

Teen drivers are typically more vulnerable on our roadways for the simple fact that they possess less driving experience. Teen drivers have recently been placed on the National Transportation Safety Board‘s (NTSB) “most wanted” list. This is a list that targets those who present the most dangers to motorists on our roadways, or those who are most at risk. The campaign aims to raise awareness about these drivers and encourage ways to better improve their skills.

According to the NTSB, car accidents are the number one cause of death for teens in the U.S. It is estimated that we lose nearly 10 teens on our roadways every day. The risk of motor vehicle accidents is higher among teen drivers than among any other age group of drivers. Even though licensed teen drivers make up only 7 percent of the entire driving population, they account for nearly 15 percent of drivers involved in all fatal accidents.

Parents should enforce these rules to help protect their teen driver on our roadways:

-Limit the driving times, destinations and the number of passengers allowed in the car when your teen is driving.

-Make sure to set and enforce check-in rules for your teen. Require them to call or text when they arrive at their destination and when they are heading home.

-Know who your teen is with and where they’re going.

-Be sure to discuss your expectations for celebrating special occasions like prom and graduation responsibly. It is important to discuss these behaviors even when your teen is not the one behind the wheel.

-Talk to your teens about the dangers of impaired and distracted driving. Talk to them about drunk driving. Even though they’re not old enough to consume alcohol, it doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t.
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Not only are Florida drivers able to use their cell phones while operating a motor vehicle, but they can also shuffle through their iPod play lists, surf the internet, send text messages and find their destinations without ever taking their eyes off the road. Although our driver’s eyes may still be on the road, their mind may be somewhere else and therefore experience increased risks of being involved in a car accident in Fort Myers and elsewhere in Florida.

“Consumers are wanting, expecting and you could say demanding more technology in their cars,” said said Tim Jackson, president and chief executive of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association. “As their lives have become more technologically driven, they want those same creature comforts in their cars.”

Florida is still one of the few states left that has yet to pass a law regulating any type of distracting driving habit. A number of studies have reported that these driving devices, many of them hands-free, require that a driver take some of their attention off the road. Our Fort Myers car accident attorneys understand that drivers pretty much have free reign when it comes to electronic devices in our vehicles, but it’s not recommended that we use these devices while driving as the results can be serious, if not deadly.

“The most important thing we’ve found in our research and various studies is keeping your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel,” said Jim Buczkowski, director of Ford electronics and electrical systems engineering.

Because of the growing number of distracting devices now available in vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started conducting studies on just how dangerous these devices can be. Nearly 5,500 people died on U.S. roadways because of car accidents that involved a distracted driver in 2009. The number one distraction reported in these accidents was the use of a cell phone.

Some argue that voice-operated devices allow the driver to keep their eyes on the road. While this may be true, their mind and focus can be somewhere else.

“We have found any sort of distraction increases the likelihood of being in a crash, even with hands-free options,” Hobbs said. “We encourage people to eliminate as much distraction as possible.”

Merecedes offers a brand new technology, the SplitView. This is a device that lets the drivers continue to access directions or other navigation data while his of her passengers enjoy a DVD on the same monitor, according to the Denver Post.

“The standard has been set by the consumer devices (such as smartphones),” said Henry Bzeih, head of Infotainment and Telematics at Kia Motors America. “The expectation is that the car should behave the same way.”

Not everyone agrees. David Strickland, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, aims to put a stop to a number of these distracting devices. He recently spoke to a crowd at the Telematics Detroit 2011 conference and told them about his plans to oppose unsafe technologies. He believes that these new “convenient” technologies do nothing more than contribute to distracted driving, according to Government Computer News.

“I’m just putting everyone on notice,” Strickland said, “A car is not a mobile device.”

Strickland isn’t opposed to all new technology. He does note that cars can come equipped with useful IT-based technologies, including Global Positioning System navigation, automated emergency notification and internal diagnostics.

“I’m not in the business of helping people tweet better,” he said. “I’m not in the business of helping people post on Facebook better.”

According to a number of studies conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, hands-free devices do help to eliminate physical distractions but do nothing to reduce cognitive distractions. A driver on the phone, by any means, increases their risk of an accident.
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Florida is one of the few states left that has no law prohibiting or restricting drivers, of any age, from using a cell phone or from using text-messaging devices. That’s right. Florida drivers are free to engage in a number of distractions while operating a motor vehicle on our roadways. These distracting devices only increase the risk of being involved in a car accident in Naples and elsewhere in the state.

Many times, in the last several years, the Florida legislature has made attempts to ban distracting driving habits through a number of bills that would regulate this dangerous habit. None of these bills have passed.

These driving habits make our roadways very dangerous. According to Distraction.gov, nearly 5,500 people were killed on U.S. roadways in 2009 because of accidents that involved a distracted driver. Another 448,000 motorists were injured in these accidents. Our Fort Myers car accident attorneys understand the lack of a cell phone law affects the safety of all motorists. Drivers are urged to regulate their own cell phone usage until a law is put into effect to help save lives on our Florida roads.

The Florida legislature was able to pass a bill that would make all driver education classes include discussions and demonstrations on the risks associated with using wireless communications devices while driving. This bill, House Bill 689, has been sent to the Governor. He has yet to sign it, according to DrivingLaws.org.

Florida may not be in charge of making its own cell phone laws for much longer. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., recently proposed the Safe Drivers Act of 2011. This is legislation that would federalize cell phone usage while driving, according to Auto Trends Magazine.

“Driving while making a phone call, texting or using apps can be as dangerous as driving drunk, and much more common,” Rep. McCarthy said. “With some basic commonsense rules that are already in place in some parts of the country, we can reduce injuries and save lives in America.”

Under this proposed legislation, the U.S. Department of Transportation would be required to set up a nationwide standard that would prohibit cell phone use while driving for everyone in the country. Drivers would still be able to use voice-operated, vehicle-integrated devices and voice-operated GPS systems.

While cognitive distractions are still present with certain hands-free devices, it is a much less serious problem than using a hand-held device.

Requirements of the new bill include:

-The DOT would be required to conduct a study on distracted driving. This study would be required to focus mainly on the issue of cognitive distraction and the impact of distraction on young and inexperienced drivers.

-Within two years, the DOT would be required to report the conclusions of the study to Congress. They would have to accompany these conclusions with recommendations for revising the minimum distracted driving prohibitions and penalties states must comply with.

-Once the federal law is put into effect, states would have two years to comply with the law. If they fail to do so, they could face a 25 percent reduction in federal highway funding.

Cell phone use is the number one reported distraction in accidents that reported the involvement of a distracted driver. Of the nearly 5,500 fatal distracted driving accidents in 2009, nearly 1,000 of them reported a cell phone as the distraction. Motorists who use hand-held devices while driving a motor vehicle are four times as likely to get into an accident serious enough to injure themselves.
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