Video Campaign Seeks to Reduce Texting While Driving

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen – the father of two teenage boys - has joined a national public service campaign featuring scenes from the award-winning television series “Glee” to help educate young adult drivers on the dangers of texting while driving. The campaign is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the State Attorneys General, Consumer Protection Agencies, and the Ad Council, with Twentieth Century Fox Television and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles reported last month that since tougher teen driving laws took effect four years ago, the number of teen drivers killed in crashes dropped from 7 in 2007 to one in 2011. NHTSA reports that in 2010, more than 3,000 people were killed and an additional 416,000 were injured due to distracted driving, which includes texting while driving.

The new television and digital public service announcements (PSAs) employ a catastrophic crash scene from “Glee,” caused by texting and driving, to emphasize that distracted driving can have horrific consequences.

The PSAs direct young adult drivers to the Texting and Driving Prevention campaign web site, StopTextsStopWrecks.org, where teens and young adults can find facts about the impact of texting while driving and tips for how to curb the behavior.  Three key facts are cited:

• Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field. (2009, VTTI)
• A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into an accident than a non-texting driver. (2009, VTTI)
• Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashed, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes). (NHTSA)

Connecticut law prohibits use of handheld cell phones and texting while driving. Fines range from $125 for a first offense to $400 for a third or subsequent offense.  For teenage drivers, the state DMV will suspend the driver’s license or learner’s permit of a 16- or 17-year-old for 30 days to six months for any conviction of violating a teen driving restriction or using a cell phone or text messaging device while driving. Those teens will have to pay a $175 license restoration fee as well as court fines.

According to a new national survey conducted by the Ad Council, the message may be getting through. Thirty-four percent of respondents said that they never text while driving, a significant increase from 28 percent in 2011. All of the new PSAs will run and air in advertising time and space that is donated by the media.

Additional resources

Website Strives to Combat Underage Drinking

The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut (WSWC) has launched a website developed to discourage underage drinking.  The initiatives comes following the very successful annual video contest for college students on the subject, with winning public service videos being aired on local television stations. The new website is part of the WSWC’s Community Relations Program, developed to advance the prevention and reduction of underage consumption of alcohol and the misuse of alcohol in Connecticut through community education.  Among the points made:

• Kid’s brains aren’t finished developing until their mid-20’s, so young people may not have the judgment or impulse control to make good decisions all the time, especially regarding alcohol use.  Youth who drink are more likely than adults to consume large quantities of alcohol in a sitting.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for young people to drink until blacking out.
• Young minds have an incredible potential to learn, but heavy drinking during the teen years, even just once a month, can permanently damage learning, memory, decision-making and reasoning abilities and can short-circuit the brain “wiring” needed to become a responsible adult.
• Young drinkers also risk putting themselves on the road to addiction – 40% of those who drink before age 15 become alcoholics while only 7% of those who begin drinking at age 21 develop alcohol problems.

Young Worker Safety Is Connecticut Priority

Three Connecticut state agencies are collaborating to promote young worker safety in Connecticut, where 44 percent of teens work a paying job during the school year, and 12 percent of teens report having a work-related injury.  The Department of Public Health, Department of Education and Department of Labor, working with the Connecticut Young Worker Safety Team, report that young workers, age 15-24, have approximately twice the rate of non-fatal injury as older workers.

Connecticut Intensifies Efforts to Curtail Drunk Driving

Connecticut, 14 other states and part of California require the ignition interlock devices for first-time DUI convictions.  Ignition interlocks gauge blood-alcohol content (BAC) after a person blows into a tube for several seconds. If the BAC surpasses a threshold, the car engine will not start. Interlocks have reduced drunken driving recidivism by a median of 67 percent, according to a 2011 news release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2009 that interlocks "reduce recidivism among both first-time and repeat DWI offenders, with reductions in subsequent DWI arrests ranging from 50 to 90 percent while the interlock is installed on the vehicle."  If mandatory use was more widespread, up to 750 lives could be saved each year, according to a study by the NHTSA, reported in the Hartford Courant  and re-posted on other news sites.  In an effort to further reduce drop drunken driving fatalities, organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and MADD are pushing for more widespread use of ignition interlocks.

Connecticut law, revised earlier this year, requires that those with one conviction must have the device installed on any cars they plan to drive. The interlock must stay on the car for one year after the driver completes a 45-day license suspension.  After a second conviction, the driver is allowed on the road after another 45-day suspension, but the ignition lock must remain on the car for three years.