Danger of driver distractions

PROFESSOR SEEKS SOLUTIONS WHILE SPREADING AWARENESS OF WORRYING TREND Every time you get into your car, distraction form the primary task of driving can present a serious and potentially deadly danger, According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 5870 people lost lives and and estimated 515000 people were injured in police-reported vehicle accidents in 2008 in wich at least one form of driver distraction was reported on the accident report. The identification of distraction and its role in the accidents by law enforcement can be very difficult, so these numbers might not give the true representation of the real problem. University of Wisconson-Madison Industrial and systems engineering profesor John D. Lee is researching how to reduce driver distraction, and in the fall he addressed the dangers of distracted driving at a summit on the topic held in Washington, D.C. Hosted by U.S. Departament of Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood, the summit was intended to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities associated with distracted driving attributable to text messaging and other tecnological uses. Lee spoke on his area of expertise, tecnology-mediated attention, to an audience that included representatives form President Obams administration, the U.S. Senate and the automotive industry. Driving in general provides you with poor feedback about whether you are driving safely or not, and without good feedback, we overestimate our abilities, Lee said. The NHTSA has been researching driver distraction with respect to both behavioral and vehicle safety countermeasures in an effort to understand and mitigate accidents associated with driver distraction, specifically on the dangers of cell phone use and texting while driving. Other secondary task involvement includes eating, drinking, conversing with pasengers, and interaction with in-vehicle technologies and portable electronic devices. Lee is developing algorithms that could interpret data form technologies such as eye tracking and sensor arrays, which are already available in some high-end vehicles, to determine if a driver is distracted driver, a car could limit speed, alert the driver to his level of impairment or even turn off altogether. Im hoping some of the technology that is becoming available will allow us to provide people with better feedback so people can change their behaviors and be safer, Lee said. Lee is also extending his research into health system by collaborating with UW-Madison industrial ans systems engineering faculty to understand how technology mediates attention in remote patient monitoring.