The females reacted more favorably to the message and content in the announcement than did the males; furthermore, males believed that punitive measures by law enforcement, such as getting ticketed or arrested, were more useful means of preventing unsafe driving ( The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety participated in a study that documents teens while driving. These findings are in line with those of prior research, which have often found that males and females respond differently to PSAs using fear appeals, with females being more responsive. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Other types of distracted driving. Emily Reynolds, Cady's 17-year-old sister, is now an advocate against distracted driving and is an active member of NOYS, the National Organizations for Youth Safety. Public service announcements are a great way to communicate. To honor Alex's memory, her family Jeanne, Johnny Mac, and 12-year-old Katrina formed an anti-distracted driving advocacy group, the Remember Alex Brown Foundation. RQ 3: Is there evidence of the third-person effect within the data results? These questionnaires were removed from the sample. campaign targets teenagers with an ad that compares places where you would text vs. places where you wouldnt. Chaudhary, N.K., Connolly, J., Tison, J., Solomon, M., & Elliott, K. (2015). Responses were analyzed to gauge the effectiveness of the PSA and look for the presence of gender differences and the third-person effect within the sample. Intentions to engage in distracted driving were measured by asking students to rate their agreement or disagreement regarding the likelihood that they would text while driving and speak up when they were passengers with a driver who is texting. Joel & Dianne Feldman Springfield, PennsylvaniaWATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPrZCCjrFLsOn July 17, 2009, 21-year-old Casey Feldman was struck and killed by a distracted driver as she crossed the street in Ocean City, New Jersey. Moreover, since they tend to be the target audience, young adults could be helpful in designing the content and messages in distracted driving PSAs. Among fatal crashes involving distracted drivers in the U.S. in 2019: A higher percentage of drivers ages 1520 were distracted than drivers age 21 and older. A reliable construct, it has a reported Cronbach alpha of 0.95 ( believe that these types of advertisements are useful to society because they promote individuals to consider others and act in their best interest. Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. The U.S. Department of Transportations Faces of Distracted Driving video series shines a light on the tragic consequences of texting and cell phone use while driving. Tanner, Hunt, & Eppright, 1991 Males were significantly less likely to express intention to both decrease their driving speed and refrain from drinking under the influence of alcohol than were females ( The 30-second PSA, Get the Message, features clips from people from across the country who lost loved ones in distracted driving crashes and have spoken out through the U.S. Department of Transportations Faces of Distracted Driving campaign. Concerns Regarding the Use of Fear Appeals. Thus, the present study will restrict participants to both males and females between the ages of 18 and 24. ; Elissa Schee St. Augustine, FloridaWATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vB22cW1ZMYOn September 23, 2008, 13-year-old Margay Schee was riding home from school when a semi-truck slammed into the back of her school bus near Citra, Florida. Roughly equivalent percentages of the sample expressed they Liked and Disliked the PSA with the modal response being neutral. In 2009, nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in accidents involving a distracted driver. Many anti-distraction ads show cinematic, slow-motion car crashes to convey the danger of taking your eyes off the road. That is, people tend to perceive that the medias greatest impact will not be on me or you but on themthe third persons ( Table 1 shows the measures of central tendency for the three scale items. Laurie Hevier, Julie's daughter, is now an advocate against distracted driving. 39% of high school students who drove in the past 30 days texted or emailed while driving on at least one of those days. Andersons (1995) Approximately 60% of the sample rated the PSA to be on the Unpleasant side. Lewis, Watson, Tay and White (2007) Lewis, Watson and Tay (2007) ; . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. A thirty-second PSA from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations Put it down campaign entitled BAM! was chosen as the studys media clip because it was brief, current, and utilized a fear appeal. The subjects will be shown one time a thirty- second public service announcement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations campaign against distracted driving. Distracted driving is defined as, any non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing ( Lewis, Watson and Tay (2007) Discover human factors management solutions that effectively address human error, conquer common injury challenges and improve safety engagement. Any of these distractions can endanger you, your passengers, and others on the road. Lennon, Rentfro, & OLeary, 2010: p. 95 Lewis, Watson, Tay amd White (2007) Part One Write the claim you will present in your argument essay. As cited by other researchers, their model considered the role of the social context of the coping response to a threat communication, introduced the notion that responses may be due to factors other than the communication itself, and emphasized, rather than minimized, the role of emotion ( After sifting through hundreds of online distracted driving videos, here are eleven of the best distraction-related clips that highlight the problemand even propose a few solutions. The national distracted driving effort focuses on ways to change the behavior of drivers through legislation, enforcement, public awareness, and education. Distracted driving in America is not a trivial issue in today's society. & Manchanda, 2003: p. 268, Lewis, Watson, Tay, & White, 2007: p. 213, Hastings, Stead, & Webb, 2004: pp. First, with regard to descriptive characteristics, it was found that the sample was 42.2% male and 57.8% female. ). Nine percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes are reported to have been distracted. Drivers have also been issued citations for texting and driving or engaging in another distracting activity while driving, and 9 out of 10 have continued to do so. One possible reason for this inconsistency is described in ). The other part of RQ 1 concerned the impact of an anti-distracted driving PSA on student intentions. 10.4236/ajc.2015.34008, Exploring the Effectiveness of Distracted Driving PSA (Public Service Announcement), 1School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA, 2Department of Media & Communication, Sungkonghoe University, Seoul, South Korea. Its a deadly trend on American roads, and its getting worse. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. The dependent variable was college students reported intent to text while driving. This finding might be useful for social marketers to know if they aim to be transparent sponsors. "This latest operating system includes a Do Not Disturb While Driving mode (DND) that can block notification of incoming calls and texts when your iPhone senses driving motion or is connected. Anything that takes your attention away from driving can be a distraction. As the NSC points out, drivers53% of thembelieve if manufacturers put infotainment dashboards and hands-free technology in vehicles, they must be safe. Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. . Raising awareness through PSA's is one of the many helpful ways to allow drivers to focus their attention properly on the road. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. U Pay. Table 1. What Kills More People Drunk Driving Or Texting And Driving? Raises people's awareness about the risks of distracted driving. Its estimated that 10% of drivers are distracted by cellphones at any given moment. The sample was comprised entirely of university students, who were critiqued as being a relatively homogeneous group ( I urge everyone to watch our Faces of Distracted Driving series at distraction.gov and to remember: talking or texting while driving is not worth the risk.. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance. Choose one of the following questions to answer for the argument essay in this module.Does our state do enough to prevent distracted driving?orCan a Public Service Announcement (PSA) help reduce the number of distracted driving incidents?Part OneWrite the claim you will present in your argument essay. CDC twenty four seven. ). Afterwards, they will complete a self-report questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the ad and their intent to engage in cell-phone use while driving. (2019). altered the original Protection Motivation Model in their study of college students responses to fear- provoking messages about sexually transmitted diseases. The boomerang effect can be seen as an adverse reaction to viewing a threatening advertisement. U.S. Department of Transportation Releases Faces of Distracted Driving Public Service Announcement, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjmlv1rbGKE, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7TfwtO17I, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdQDTmKY0vY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPrZCCjrFLs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKOiMSkLxY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG79X-hYJ_E, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6iCrZ4AIpw, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcRTwKminbQ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pHBWyUQxx4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vB22cW1ZMY, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology. They note that not every individual responds to fearful messages in the same way; rather, responses to fear appeals depend on the perceptions people develop concerning the enormity of the pending danger and on their evaluations of its effect ( This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. In the United States, over 3,100 people were killed and about 424,000 were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2019. However, Anderson (1995) NHTSA, 2011 What percentage of drivers are distracted? Speak up if you are a passenger in a car with a distracted driver. Learn how to drive distraction away and get drivers to keep their eyes (and mind) on the road. Anderson, 1995: pp. On average, eight people are killed and one thousand one hundred sixty one people are injured due to accidents involving distracted drivers, particularly due to texting. The PSA was shown one time to a convenience sample of 109 students in one large undergraduate level class and two small graduate level classes in the Mass Communication department at Texas State University in the fall of 2011. So what does it have to do with drivers who arent paying attention? By making these modifications, the study results could be generalized to the larger population. In their experimental study, Accidents from distracted driving occur when the driver's attention is distracted by external factors such as picking calls, answering texts, or even taking a bite. Wilson & Stimpson, 2010 Murry, Stam, & Lastovicka, 1996: p. 1 You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. The goal of social marketing is to encourage changes in behavior that benefit the individual, community, and society at large ( Lewis, Watson, & Tay, 2007: p. 58 There are no cellphones and no one takes their eyes off the road. The questionnaire focused mainly on the behavior of texting while driving because, according to the Part . This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the, In 2021, Congress provided resources to add distracted driving awareness as part of drivers license exams as part of the. Again, there was a statistically significant relationship found between these variables (2 = 12.856, p = 0.012). These statistics substantiate the claim that many young adults, by their own admission, are engaging in a very distracting behavior while driving. The goal behind this strategy is grounded in the notion that fear makes individuals feel tense and anxious, thus they will seek ways to reduce these feelings ( Traffic Safety Marketing: Distracted Driving. As part of RQ 1, some questions on the survey asked respondents to give their opinions regarding the PSA. That is, advertising messages in this category may grasp audience awareness in the short-term, but may not necessarily accomplish the objective of enhancing driver safety in the long-term. You can visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrationexternal icon(NHTSA) website for more information on how data on motor vehicle crash deaths are collected and the limitations of distracted driving data. Distracted Driving Campaign Under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, the Department of Transportation launched an aggressive national campaign in 2009 to end the dangerous practice of distracted driving, and specifically texting and cell phone use behind the wheel. ). In addition to providing great turns of phrase like stupid death by smartphone, it also offers a common-sense solution (with no handholding required). A second significant positive correlation was found between the variables measuring students perception that PSAs help to prevent texting while driving and their reported likelihood of thinking of the PSA they had viewed when they drove from now on. The PSAs in Dr. Lennon's study showed cars that had been totaled by accidents due to texting and talking on the phone while driving. Of course,PSA can help to reduce the number,of distracted driving incidents,but not to much.maximum 10%,because people can't still realize how dangerous it is,before they won't face the same problem.But we can see here second view of point.Maybe PSA can help reduce the number of distracted driving more,than 10% ?.. ). ). The students viewed a thirty- second PSA before completing a self-report questionnaire. ). included within the survey asked respondents to rate their emotional response to the PSA. The results of this study demonstrated that participants who viewed the self-efficacy PSAs were better able to discourage others from driving under the influence of alcohol than were the participants who viewed the consequence-based control PSA ( The issue of distracted driving has been a popular topic in research and the subject of numerous campaigns and laws. Schoenbachler & Whittler, 1996 In addition, freshman was 1%, sophomore was 22%, senior was 23%, and graduate student was 14%. These results are highly representative of normal driving populations, where most respondents have not been involved in a collision or received a moving violation within the past 5 years. A commonly used strategy in social cause advertising seems to be appealing to fear. They may have paused for a bit, but they have since resumed. The PSA ends with the Put it down campaign logo and lists the NHTSA as the sponsor. measured the responses of a sample of 229 people to multiple news releases; these researchers also found support for the existence of the third-person effect in their experimental study. Finally, a main limitation was that reported intentions might not fully and accurately determine actual behavior in people. The survey instrument also utilized items from a preexisting scale entitled the Affective Response (General) Scale ( They were: more likely to not always wear a seat belt; more likely to ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol; and. In other words, one could argue that this cohort has been desensitized. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2011) The majority of people said that safety and PSA messages are useful, with some saying that they are more effective than other media. One Text or Call Could Wreck It All Phone In One Hand - Ticket In The Other U Drive. When asked the question, How often do you write/read text messages while driving? the majority of respondents (61.8%) answered that they did so sometimes and 10.8% answered frequently. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. Saving Lives, Protecting People, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, states graduated driver licensing system, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, CDC MMWR Transportation Risk Behaviors Among High School Students Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019, CDC MMWR Mobile Device Use While Driving United States and Seven European Countries, 2011, Governors Highway Safety Association Distracted Driving, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Distracted Driving, World Health Organization Mobile Phone Use: A Growing Problem of Driver Distraction, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Distracted Driving at Work, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Campaign Materials, Traffic Safety Facts Research Note: Distracted Driving 2019 (DOT HS 813 111), Overview of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations Driver Distraction Program (DOT HS 811 299), Transportation Risk Behaviors Among High School Students Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019, Evaluation of the NHTSA Distracted Driving High-Visibility Enforcement Demonstration Projects in California and Delaware, Evaluation of NHTSA Distracted Driving Demonstration Projects in Connecticut and New York, Countermeasures that work: A highway safety countermeasures guide for State Highway Safety Offices, 10, Technical Advisory: Shoulder and Edge Line Rumble Strips (T 5040.39, Revision 1), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Motor Vehicle Prioritizing Interventions and Cost Calculator for States (MV PICCS), What Works: Strategies to Increase Car Seat and Booster Seat Use, What Works: Strategies to Increase Restraint Use, What Works: Strategies to Reduce or Prevent Alcohol-Impaired Driving, Increasing Alcohol Ignition Interlock Use, Roadway to Safer Tribal Communities Toolkit, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Drinking coffee or another beverage. Lennon, Rentfro and OLeary (2010) ). The risks are great and lead to unfathomable results. A Public Service Announcement (PSA) can help reduce the number of distracted driving accidents by explaining the horrible effects of distracted driving and the best ways to prevent distracted driving. A PSA can help reduce the number of distracted driving incidents. Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data. . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, as Some studies have shown that even more graphic appeals, such. ). ; Drivers in Florida will not be able to use their cell phones to read data on their mobile device because of the states new text ban. Informs safety guides of driving. He drove into oncoming traffic, and their vehicle was struck by a tractor-trailer. Get the Message is available for download on www.distraction.gov. Texting behind the wheel makes you 23 times more likely to crash, and reduces your reaction time by 35% A public service announcement wouldn't effectively reduce the amount of distracted drivers. Crash reconstruction reports showed the driver could not have been looking at the road for 8.75 seconds. Lennon, Rentfro, & OLeary, 2010: p. 95 Johnny Mac & Jeanne Brown Wellman, TexasWATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKOiMSkLxYOn November 10, 2009, 17-year-old Alex Brown was killed when she crashed her truck on a rural road while she was on her way to school. used a questionnaire instrument to measure the behavioral intentions of a sample of 152 drivers in Australia both before and after they viewed two different, threatening advertisements promoting road safety. ). The male adolescents in their sample expressed the opinion that others would be more affected by the advertisements than they would be; females, on the other hand, expressed reverse third-person effects in that they believed the advertisements influenced themselves more than other people (p. 48). The modal classification within the dataset was Junior, with 41.2% of respondents belonging to that category. ; Lennon, Rentfro & OLeary, 2010: p. 96 In line with past literature, males and females in this sample responded differently to the message, with females being more responsive. As quoted by Ricks proposal has the added benefit of dealing with the problem of phantom callsand pointing out how little drivers can be trusted to do whats right in the moment. Argument OrganizerChoose one of the following questions to answer for the argument essay in this module.Does our state do enough to prevent distracted driving?orCan a Public Service Announcement (PSA) help reduce the number of distracted driving incidents?Part OneWrite the claim you will present in your argument essay.Write the counterclaim that you will refute in your argument essay. Cady was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries and died the next day. A self-report questionnaire with 26 questions was developed to assess some demographic information about respondents, their perceptions of the PSA, and their intent to engage in a particular distracted driving behavior, text messaging while driving. Washington, DC 20590855-368-4200. Laurie Hevier St. Paul, MinnesotaWATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pHBWyUQxx4On April 15, 2009, 58-year-old Julie Davis set off for a hike with her best friend in Rudolph, Wisconsin. WASHINGTON U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today released a new public service announcement (PSA) promoting the U.S. Department of Transportations Faces of Distracted Driving series, which has been viewed over 100,000 times since its launch in November 2010. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, six percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes are distracted at the time of the crashes. Based on. This lighthearted PSA doesnt need a graphic car crash to make its point. Receive email updates about the latest in Safety, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. A 30-second PSA against distracted driving from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration served as the independent variable. Like the previous clip, this video takes place on a driving track. Moreover, they may have harmful effects for those members of society who are less psychologically stable or vulnerable ( Distracted Driving Car Accidents in California The statistics prove this: Nearly 60% of drivers in California say that they have been in an accident or nearly hit by a distracted driver. In 2013, 3,154 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes which involved distracted drivers. Distracted driving can increase the chance of a motor vehicle crash. Qualifying questions were included to ensure that subjects fit into the sample criteria of students aged 18 - 24 attending Texas State University. ). Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Using an app. The video ends with a simple message: Other people make mistakes. The implication is that you cant control other drivers, but there are steps you can takelike slowing down and paying attentionto mitigate others mistakes. Brennan and Binney (2010) This issue presents a problem for social marketers because the advertisements they create are seemingly reached by primarily one gender instead of both. But nothing has quite the visual impact of ads, public service announcements and other videos aimed at curbing distracted driving. Therefore, organizations such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have tried to create persuasive campaigns to reach drivers and tackle this hazardous activity. When asked to rate their agreement on the statement, It is less dangerous to read text messages while driving than to write them, a slight majority (34.3%) reported that they strongly disagree. How many accidents are caused by distracted driving each year? Still, some positive benefits have been found to exist from using fear-based or shocking content within advertisements. Davison, 1983: p. 3 She was cited for inattentive driving and fined $173.40. This rant is a segment from Canadas Rick Mercer Report. Part One 1. Comprehensive GDL systems include five components 8-9, one of which addresses distracted driving: the young passenger restriction. NHTSA leads the national effort to save lives by preventing this dangerous behavior. ). Yet, despite this response, the subjects also reported a higher level of intent to behave in the ways depicted in the ads; this reaction is known as the boomerang effect ( Parachute Canadas Is It Worth It? Seeing as both males and females have the capacity to engage in distracted driving and they are both included in the target audience of PSAs designed to discourage such behavior, it is reasonable to study how each gender responds to the social marketing messages they encounter. Table 24 summarizes the self-reported information about the subjects' driving experiences. It may create a number of awkward social situations but it could lead to safer drivers (at least when theres someone in the passenger seat). Lennon, Rentfro, & OLeary, 2010 1.6 million crashes are caused by cell phone use while driving. Lewis, Watson, Tay and White (2007) This theory, created by Whether its adjusting your mirrors, selecting music, eating, making a phone call, or reading a text or emaildo it before or after your trip, not during. Distractions lead to disaster. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.
