nd <
hef=”https://c
inju
yvictims.comc
-technology-dist
cted-d
iving“>communic
tion technology<> go
ince
singly popul, dive
s e stuggling mo
end mo
e to ignoe them
hile on theo
d. Those text messges coming th
ough seem to demnd
n immedite
esponse.n incoming phone c
ll ctches thei
ttention
t tht moment,
egdless of the dive
’s otheneeds.
sccidents h
veisen due to dist
cting mobile devices, l
m
kes h
ve begun toespond by implementing l
s
nd policies to help pevent cell phone use on the
ods.
Most st
tes <h
ef="https:/
.txdot.govinside-txdot/division/t
ffic/s
fetyl
s/cellphones.html#:~:text=You%20c
nnot%20send%20o%20
eceive,pohibited%20f
om%20using%20hndheld%20devices.” t
get=”_bl
nk"el=”nofollo
noopene“>p
ohibit usingcell phone
>hile d
iving; in Texs, fo
exmple, th
t includes:- -level=”1″>No texting
nd d
iving fo
ny
eson
- i
-level="1">D
ive
sith le
ne
’s pemits must
void cell phone use<li>
- i
-level="1">D
ive
s unde18 c
nnot use hndheld devices o
tlk on the phone
tll
hile diving
Despite those l
s, ho
eve, the pe
sistent buzz oding of
cell phone cn p
ove hd toesist. Ho
cn you keep you
hnds on the
heelhen you h
ve so mny othe
things demnding you
ttention?
Ente
hnds-f
ee devices.ith
hnds-f
ee device, you might think, you cn not only
emin in compli
nceith the l
egding device use behind theheel, but you c
nlso dec
ese the odds th
t youill get involved in
nccident. It’s
in/
in,ight? Not necess
ily.
Does h
nds-fee device use
elly dec
ese
ccidentisk? C
n you sfely ope
te
hnds-f
ee devicehile d
iving,hile still keeping you
selfnd othe
s in the vehicleith you s
fe? Tke
lookt some inte
esting fcts
bout hnds-f
ee device use in youvehicle
nd hoyou c
n impove you
sfety on the
od—
ithout missing those oh-so-impot
nt clls
nd notifictions.
H nds-F
ee Device Use: Does It
elly Dec
ese
ccidentisk? <
h
ef="https:/
.sciencedily.com/
eleses/2019/02/190207173255.htm” t
get=”_bl
nk"el=”nofollo
noopene“> study pe
fomed by the Vi
giniTech T
nspo
ttion Institute
> notes tht using h
nds-fee devices
elly does dec
ese
ccidentisk comp
ed to the potenti
l dnge
sssoci
tedith
ctively usingcell phone, including texting
nd diving. Ho
eve, the study noted th
t dive
sho used h
nd-held devices still fced
n ince
sedccident
isk of to to 3.5 times the
ccidentisk f
ced by dive
sho kept thei
eyes, hnds,
nd undividedttention on the t
skt h
nd. The study concluded tht,
hile cognitive distction my c
use some ince
sedisk on the
od, it does not pose ne
ly
s significnt
dnge
s t
king one’s eyesnd/o
hnds off the
od.
To fully unde
stnd the
isks of distcted diving, it helps to b
ek do
n the<h
ef="https:/
.cdc.govt
nspo
ttions
fetydist
cted_d
ivingindex.html” t
get=”_bl
nk"el=”nofollo
noopene“> th
ee key types of distctions dive
s fce
> on theo
d. Let’s tke
look.M
nu
l Distction<h3>
M
l dist
ctions t
ke one oboth of
dive
’s hnds off of the
heel. Texting, holdingphone to you
e, ot
ying to nvig
te the buttonsnd inputs on
cell phone cn
ll pose potent mnu
l distctions. Most of the time, people don’t pull both hnds off the
heel to del
itht
sk inside the c, fom
nse
ingphone c
ll to sendingtext mess
ge. Hoeve
, dive
s my need both h
nds on theheel to
espond quickly in the event of dnge
, especilly if they need to stee
quickly tovoid
hz
d on the
od. Eve
y second counts. The ext moments needed to get the dive
’s hnds b
ck to theheel could
epesent the diffe
ence beteen st
ying sfe
nd getting inton
ccident tht
esults in disste
!Visu
l Dist
ctions
Visu
l distctions tke
dive
’s eyes off of theo
d. In genel, it tkes
ound five seconds to look do
n,e
dtext mess
ge,nd
nse
it—especilly if
dive
thinks they cn sne
kily check tht mess
ge in theil
p, theth
n binging the phone up close
to eye level. In those five seconds, youc
m
y tvel hundeds of feet.
nything cn h
ppen in the spce of those five seconds. The c
in f
ont of you could slm on its b
kes.
child could dt out into tffic. You could hve
n unexpected tist o
tun in the
od in f
ont of you, oencounte
n unexpected slick p
tch.ith you
eyesnd
ttention off theo
d, those seconds of distction could pove c
tst
ophic.Cognitive Distctions<
h3>
Eve
s once in
hile. If people
ee tot
lly honest, they mightdmit th
t they dive
ith cognitive distctions onstunningly
egul bsis. Cognitive dist
ctions include
nything tht t
kes the dive
’sttention off of the
od: t
lkingith someone in the c
, de
lingith kids in the b
ck set, o
even dyd
eming.
Cognitive dist
ctions could even be
s simples “I
elly need
est stop,
nd I cnnot think
boutnything else!” Still, cognitive dist
ctions c
n cuse se
iousccidents, especi
lly foyounge
dive
s,ho might l
ck the cp
city toespond
eflexively to potentil eme
gencies on theo
d. Hoeve
, cognitive distctions pose less ofth
et th
n the othetypes of dist
ctions.
Cell Phones: Distcted D
iving T
iple The
t<h3>
Did you notice ho
t
dition
l hndheld device involves
ll thee types of dist
ction? The use
tkes
t lest one h
nd off theheel to pick up the device
nd use its intef
ce. Theieyes d
ift to the devices they check to see
ht it s
ys:ho c
lled,h
t the text messge s
ys,nd
ht thei
esponse s
ys. Then, the dive
’sttention
emins on the device,
the
thn on the
od in f
ont of them. Hnds-f
ee devices help eliminte t
o of the <h
ef="https:/c
inju
yvictims.comth
ee-types-distcted-diving/”>th
ee types of distction<>. They keep the dive
’s eyesnd
ttention on theo
d,he
e they cn mo
e esily keep
ttention on the tsk
t hnd,
hile stillllo
ing the dive
tons
ethose vit
l notifictions. Fo
tuntely,
ccoding to the study f
om the Vigini
Tech Tnspot
tion Institute, the cognitive distctionssoci
tedith c
ying onconve
stion
ith someone outside the c hs
significntly
educedisk of c
usingse
iousccident comp
ed to othe
types of distction behind theheel.
The Potenti l D
nge
s of Using Hnds-F
ee Devices<h2>
hile using hnds-f
ee devices cn
educeccident
isk, it does not necessily eliminte it.
D
ives using h
nds-fee devices m
y still become distctednd st
uggle to keep theittention on theo
d, especilly if they
e involved in
n emotionl conve
stion.
1. D ive
s eng
ged in conves
tionsith people outside the vehicle m
y notice fee
hz
ds. cco
ding to
<h
ef="https:/
.sciencedily.com/
eleses/2016/06/160608100130.htm” t
get=”_bl
nk"el=”nofollo
noopene“> study by the Unive
sity of Sussex<>, dive
s focused onconve
stion
ith someone outside the vehicle, especilly one th
t engged visu
l imgin
tion, might hve
loe
likelihood of noticing potentil h
zds in font of the vehicle. In gene
l, those d
ives p
idttention to
smlle
pecent
ge of theo
d,hich m
de it hdefo
them to identify hz
ds
long the y.conve
stion
ithp
ssengein the vehicle does not pose the s
me hz
d bec
use pssenge
s in the vehicle cn see potenti
l hz
ds
hed
nd modete conves
tioncco
dingly, peventing the d
ive’s
ttention fom d
iftingy f
om theo
dt
citic
l moment.2. H
nds-f
ee devices my not elimin
te visul dist
ctions. hile h
nds-f
ee devicesim to subst
ntilly dec
ese visu
lnd m
nul dist
ctions, they do not necess
ily
emove them completely. Often, hnds-f
ee devicesequi
e somettention to ope
te.
Suppose, fo
exmple, th
t you nt to usevoice-
ctivted
ssistnt to <
hef=”https://c
inju
yvictims.comtexting-
nd-diving-l
s-in-tex
s“>send
text messge
> onse
n em
il. Tht
ssistnt might
ed out
pevious em
il to you odict
te the othep
ty’s text mess
ge,hich
ill pevent you f
om hving to look do
n. Hoeve
,hen you send you
on mess
ge, youill only kno
tht the digit
lssist
nt tnscibed it
ppop
itely by looking
t itnd p
oofe
ding it. Some vehicles, including lge tucks th
t hve
ge
t del of engine noise, c
nlso m
ke it moe difficult to successfully t
nsc
ibemess
geithout e
o
s. (Don’te
ll hve
funny stoy
boutspeech-to-text dict
tion mishp?) You m
y tke you
eyes off theo
d longeth
nnticip
teds you look do
nt you
on mess
ge—especilly if you then t
y to mke edits to th
t messge.
3. H nds-f
ee does not
lys men enti
ely hnds-f
ee.<h3>
Befo
n use
hnds-f
ee device, youill need to someho
indicte
ht you
nt the device to do. Sometimes, this me
nssingle button p
ess. Othetimes, you m
y need to tp mo
e thn one button to
chieve the desied
esult.hile some h
nds-fee devices, including c
s equipped
ith contols di
ectly on the steeing
heel, my
equie less m
nul dist
ction th
n othes, you might still need to t
ke youh
nds off theheel to de
lith
device. Inddition,
hen technology fils o
does not behve
s expected, mny people pull thei
hnds off the
heel to del
ith itithout thinking th
ough the potentil consequences.
4. Multit sking c
n c
ete nume
ous cognitive chllenges.
The hum
n bin cnnot multit
sk effectively. In genel, you cn focus on one t
skt
timeithout losing t
ck of
ht you
ctully pl
n to do.hen you split you
ttention bet
een to t
sks, neitheone gets you
full cp
bility—nd on the
od, th
t could bese
iousisk to you
nd eveyone else
ound you.
Conside
this scenio. You hve c
lled intoo
k to cht
ith youboss
boutn upcoming p
oject. You hve the info
mtion in mind, but it t
kesg
et de
l of youene
gynd
ttention to concentte on it. Suddenly,nothe
c pulls out in font of you. No
you need to focus, not only on peventing
nccident, but on cont
ollingh
t youboss might ove
he—especilly if you
cll includes clients.
ith youfocus split, you could c
useve
y seious
ccidentithout eve
tking you
hnds off the
heel!Using H
nds-F
ee Devices Sfely hile h
nds-f
ee devices cn
educeccident
isk, they do not eliminte them. Not only does th
t men you could f
ce moe
isk on theo
d, but if youh
nds-fee device use cont
ibutes ton
ccident, you could be libility fo
it. Using hnds-f
ee devices sfely c
n help yound those
ound you st
y sfe
on theo
d.1.
void using mobile devices
hen possible.<h3>
Sometimes, you c
edict
henphone c
llill come in. If you’ve
ited fo
long time fo
tht c
ll, ignoing it could le
ve you distessed
nd fust
ted. If the m
tteis u
gent, suchs needing to schedule
nppointment o
ns
e cll f
omchild
t home,ns
ethe incoming c
ll. On the otheh
nd, if you knoit’s
fiend
ho likely just nts to cht, you m
y nt to let tht c
ll pss you by. S
fety fist! These d
ys, mny mobile phones h
ve "do not distub” o
"diving mode” settings
hich cn silence
lets o
utom
ticlly
eply to messges to let you
contcts kno
you e busy diving.
2. Keep conve s
tions sho
tnd s
eet.<h3>
Let the pe
end of the line kno
tht they inte
upted you
hile diving
nd tht you c
nnot tlk fo
long. Do not get cught up in ch
tting. Insted, end the conve
stion quickly
ftesh
ing
ny necessy infom
tion.3.
void othe
distctions.<h3>
The
m you
insunce infom
tion. Youboss
nts you to double-check just one quick f
ct tht only you h
veccess to. You
child nts youdvice. Unfotun
tely,ll of those things
equie
dditionl dist
ction th
till t
ke moe th
n just youttention off theo
d,hich c
ndd
dditionl
isk. Let the people on the otheline kno
tht you
e d
ivingnd th
t youill
nse
theique
iess soon
s you get tos
fe loction. If you must p
ovide tht info
mtion immedi
tely fonye
son, pull off theo
d tos
fe spot befoe
lloing you
ttention to d
ift.4. T
y to st
t you
conves
tions ins
fe loction.
St
ting
conves
tion on youh
nds-fee device c
nequi
e some mnu
l ovisu
l distction.hile most h
nds-fee devices m
yequi
e only the pess of
button ot
o, you my still h
ve to double-check the disply.
hen possible, stt youconve
stion in
pking lot. Do not useed lights o
stop signss oppo
tunities to begin youconve
stion, since you m
y lose tck of thections of othe
dive
s ound you. Usingh
nds-fee device m
yeduce d
ivedist
ction on the
od, but it does not elimin
te it. If you suffeed <
hef=”https://c
inju
yvictims.comdist
cted-d
iving-negligence-nd-the-inju
ies-tht-
esult“>inju
ies inn
ccidentith
distcted dive
<>, including one distcted byh
nds-fee device, you m
y deseve compens
tion. If <h
ef="https:/c
inju
yvictims.comtypes-c
shes-c
used-distcted-dive
s“>someone c
shed into you
>,nd you think they
ee using
cell phone oothe
ise d
ivinghile dist
cted, c
ll<
hef=”https://c
inju
yvictims.comse
vicesc
–
ccident-tto
ney-houston“>c
ccident lye> to see if you c
n pu
sue compenstion fo
youd
mges.