From the desk of Dr. Christopher Renne, Chiropractic Physician
Hey everyone! Because I see so many people here in Jacksonville walking
into my office every day with back and neck pain thanks to car accidents, car
safety is a big concern of mine! And a big danger on the road these days
are DWIs: Driving While In-TEXT-icated!
Drivers who are distracted by their phones are a serious problem. In 2011,
cellphones were involved in 23% of all car accidents in the US, and the numbers
have doubtless only gone up since then.
But the group that is most at risk from driving while distracted
by their phones are teens. A full 13% of teenagers ages 18-20 who were in car
wrecks admitted talking on or texting with their phones at the time of the
accident. Yet many young folks don’t see
their smartphones as a problem. 55% percent of young adult drivers claim that
it is easy to text while they drive!
In fact, the average time that a texting driver’s eyes are
off the road is five seconds, during which a car traveling 55 mph can travel a
quarter of the length of a football field. Too much can happen during that
amount of time, friends! As teens are texting more than ever, they are more
distracted than ever behind the wheel, and that spells D-A-N-G-E-R.
Fortunately, at least
one teenager recognizes the problem and is taking steps to do something about
it! T.J. Evarts, a 19-year-old inventor, has created something called the
“SmartWheel.” The SmartWheel is really
cool. It is a cover that goes onto your steering wheel. This cover contains
smart sensors that detect when a driver is paying attention and when they are
not - and it also has a big green light that will flash red when it detects its
driver is “driving distracted.”
But the SmartWheel doesn’t just stop at a flashing light. It
can also connect to a smartphone and give teens real-time statistics for them
to review on how they are doing with staying focused while driving - after
they get safely home, of course! And in the future, Evarts hopes to add simple
touch features to the SmartWheel that will help people to do simple tasks on
their phones without taking their hands off the wheel or their eyes off the
road. For teen drivers who are frequently distracted, this could be an
incredibly valuable tool.
T.J. Evarts and his SmartWheel are already making big waves.
He’s been on the TV shows Shark Tank and
Innovation Nation, and he was invited to demonstrate his invention to the
President and the US Secretary of Transportation!
Unfortunately, you can’t buy the SmartWheel yet, but I
highly recommend you check out the website and watch the video for it at SmartWheelUSA.com.
We need more teenagers who understand the perils of distracted driving. With
great ideas like the SmartWheel, we may
yet make our roads safer!
In the meantime, if you have teens of your own, talk to them
about the importance of putting down the phone and keeping their eyes on the
road. The life they save could be their own.
Yours in
health,
Christopher
B. Renne, D.C.
Chiropractic
Physician
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