aGameOfThrones
09-17-2014, 07:01 PM
Eliminate Distraction in Transportation
What is the issue?
Every major mode of transportation—highway, aviation, railroad, marine, and pipeline—requires that its operating personnel have well-established and practiced skills to use their equipment safely and effectively. These skills depend upon several human capabilities, such as cognitive attention and decision-making, visual recognition and identification, and manual motor skills for quick and accurate responses. When operating transportation equipment, regardless of its size or class, operators must focus diligently and exclusively on the task of controlling their vehicles within dynamic environments to ensure that they and the public remain safe. With the expansive increase in portable electronic devices (PEDs), including cell phones, messaging and navigation systems, and entertainment devices, as well as the growing development of integrated technologies in vehicles, the NTSB is seeing a disturbing growth in the number of accidents due to distracted operators; often these accidents have deadly consequences.
The safety community has directed considerable interest toward the topic of distracted driving. A 2013 survey conducted by the American Automobile Association's (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety identified a number of disturbing trends; for example, nearly 70 percent of drivers reported talking on cell phones while driving in the past 30 days, about 25 percent of drivers admitted to typing text and electronic mail messages while driving, and about 35 percent reported reading text or electronic mail messages while driving. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 2013 report, drivers engaging in visual-manual tasks, such as dialing or texting, increases the risk of a crash by three times. In another AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety 2013 report, researchers found that a driver's level of cognitive distraction is about equal when using either hands-free or hand-held cell phones.
Distraction affects all drivers and operators, whether in a car or truck, an airplane cockpit, a locomotive cab, the bridge of a ship, or a control room for a pipeline system. For example, on August 26, 2011, an emergency medical services helicopter crashed in Missouri; the pilot, two flight crewmembers, and a patient were killed. The NTSB determined that the helicopter ran out of fuel because the pilot was inattentive and engaged in personal texting. On September 12, 2008, a freight train and commuter train collided head-on in Chatsworth, California, killing 25. The NTSB determined that the commuter train engineer was distracted by text messaging. Other accident investigations and safety studies conducted by the NTSB in all modes of transportation underscore the dangers of using PEDs while operating a highway vehicle, plane, train, ship, or pipeline.
In short, operator distraction due to PED usage is a cultural epidemic that too often has tragic consequences.
What can be done . . .
The United States needs a cultural shift that prioritizes PED-free transportation operations. To effect and sustain such a change, we need more than effective laws and regulations, strong and consistent enforcement, and pervasive education. We need to build a social infrastructure that dissuades distracted operations at all times, starting with new and existing drivers who are the agents of change, extending through their family and community support systems to reinforce appropriate behaviors, to the local and regional educational and enforcement to ensure proper guidance and corrections for behaviors.
While laws and regulations already prohibit PED usage in some operations, such as during commercial flight operations and by on-duty rail operations personnel, these laws and regulations need to be expanded to on-duty marine crewmembers and all motor vehicle drivers. Such laws and regulations set a tone for what will and will not be tolerated when operating planes, trains, ships, pipelines, and vehicles.
http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/mwl3_2014.html
What is the issue?
Every major mode of transportation—highway, aviation, railroad, marine, and pipeline—requires that its operating personnel have well-established and practiced skills to use their equipment safely and effectively. These skills depend upon several human capabilities, such as cognitive attention and decision-making, visual recognition and identification, and manual motor skills for quick and accurate responses. When operating transportation equipment, regardless of its size or class, operators must focus diligently and exclusively on the task of controlling their vehicles within dynamic environments to ensure that they and the public remain safe. With the expansive increase in portable electronic devices (PEDs), including cell phones, messaging and navigation systems, and entertainment devices, as well as the growing development of integrated technologies in vehicles, the NTSB is seeing a disturbing growth in the number of accidents due to distracted operators; often these accidents have deadly consequences.
The safety community has directed considerable interest toward the topic of distracted driving. A 2013 survey conducted by the American Automobile Association's (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety identified a number of disturbing trends; for example, nearly 70 percent of drivers reported talking on cell phones while driving in the past 30 days, about 25 percent of drivers admitted to typing text and electronic mail messages while driving, and about 35 percent reported reading text or electronic mail messages while driving. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 2013 report, drivers engaging in visual-manual tasks, such as dialing or texting, increases the risk of a crash by three times. In another AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety 2013 report, researchers found that a driver's level of cognitive distraction is about equal when using either hands-free or hand-held cell phones.
Distraction affects all drivers and operators, whether in a car or truck, an airplane cockpit, a locomotive cab, the bridge of a ship, or a control room for a pipeline system. For example, on August 26, 2011, an emergency medical services helicopter crashed in Missouri; the pilot, two flight crewmembers, and a patient were killed. The NTSB determined that the helicopter ran out of fuel because the pilot was inattentive and engaged in personal texting. On September 12, 2008, a freight train and commuter train collided head-on in Chatsworth, California, killing 25. The NTSB determined that the commuter train engineer was distracted by text messaging. Other accident investigations and safety studies conducted by the NTSB in all modes of transportation underscore the dangers of using PEDs while operating a highway vehicle, plane, train, ship, or pipeline.
In short, operator distraction due to PED usage is a cultural epidemic that too often has tragic consequences.
What can be done . . .
The United States needs a cultural shift that prioritizes PED-free transportation operations. To effect and sustain such a change, we need more than effective laws and regulations, strong and consistent enforcement, and pervasive education. We need to build a social infrastructure that dissuades distracted operations at all times, starting with new and existing drivers who are the agents of change, extending through their family and community support systems to reinforce appropriate behaviors, to the local and regional educational and enforcement to ensure proper guidance and corrections for behaviors.
While laws and regulations already prohibit PED usage in some operations, such as during commercial flight operations and by on-duty rail operations personnel, these laws and regulations need to be expanded to on-duty marine crewmembers and all motor vehicle drivers. Such laws and regulations set a tone for what will and will not be tolerated when operating planes, trains, ships, pipelines, and vehicles.
http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/mwl3_2014.html