Gjensidige and the Swedish Road Safety Association have, via Ipsos, conducted a survey of 3,500 motorists. In the survey, one in three answers that the interactive screen in the car has led to “dangerous or uncomfortable situations in traffic”. In half of these “unpleasant situations”, the screen has led to actual accidents or mishaps. – Put in pure numbers, this means that touch screens are to blame for more than 100,000 accidents, says Bjarne Aani Rysstad, who is communications manager at Gjensidige. He refers to the accident statistics as “disappointing” and calls the extent of distracted Norwegian drivers “a new folk disease” that creates “death and depravity”. – Technological development is great, but something disappointing has happened with the driving behavior of Norwegian drivers, he says. Rysstad adds that the real numbers are apparently higher than what the statistics capture. They stand behind Trygg Trafikk’s proposal for a ban on all printing that does not happen via the steering wheel. – Touchscreens are to blame for more than 100,000 accidents, says Bjarne Aani Rysstad, who is communications manager at Gjensidige. Photo: Mats Stordal / Mats Stordal Ingunn Handagard in NAF tells news that they do not want such a specifically Norwegian ban as it “will be difficult to enforce and make more motorists involuntary law breakers”. An article in The New York Times states that the solution to distracting technology is more technology. Mikkel Friis of the Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) points to the same, and refers to new control systems that allow the driver to speak or gesture to the car – instead of pressing. – Screens make new demands on you as a driver Ingunn Lauritzen Handagard, NAF – That more and more functions are being moved to screens makes new demands on you as a driver. Our recommendation is that you make important settings before you start driving, to avoid taking your attention away from the road. Then you can rather drive to the side if you have to set up navigation or the like later. The traffic rules are clear that you must pay attention to the road when you drive. Therefore, you must familiarize yourself with where you can find the functions you may need along the way. You should simply be a little critical of your own abilities and not overestimate how well you are able to follow along on the road if you have to use several keystrokes to find the settings. The Swedish Road Administration has launched a campaign A week ago, news wrote about an alarming German report which concludes that the use of screens in new cars “represents a major safety risk”. The survey was received as a wake-up call among European car organisations, which will now discuss whether there should be standardized requirements for the design and placement of functions. The German test comes on top of several other reports. A Swedish experiment from 2019 shows that people spend much longer navigating on the screen than they do on traditional knobs and menu wheels. In 2020, a study commissioned by the British road safety organization IAM RoadSmart showed that drivers who “fiddled” with the large screens had a longer reaction time than those who drove under the influence. Last year the Swedish Road Administration launched the campaign “Thank you for attention” following reports that several accidents were due to a lack of attention and that the trend was only continuing to increase. In June they called for a crisis meeting after what has been referred to as a Norwegian “summer of misfortune”. So far this year, 70 people have lost their lives on Norwegian roads. That is more than twice as many as in the first half of 2021. – Comparable to mobile use Rikard G. Knutsen, Road Traffic Information Council – How touchscreens in cars affect us is one of the areas we are forced to gain better knowledge about. There are many indications that it may be a good idea to put some degree of standardization in place, and that important functions are easy to find. Several cars also now offer voice control of functions and it is a good tool to limit the use of the screen in the car. – It is well known that mobile phone use is very dangerous in traffic. This is now being fined very severely and we cannot get away from the fact that having to focus on a screen in the car for some time is comparable to using a mobile phone. TOUCH SCREENS: The use of touch screens should be regulated more strictly, Trygg Trafikk believes.Nikolai Akse Helgås/news – A significant source of distraction Project manager at the Institute of Transport Economics (TØI), Tor-Olav Nævestad, tells news that “roughly half of the fatal accidents in the period 2017- 2020 has low attention, distraction or fatigue as contributing factors”. The statement is based on data from the Accident Analysis Group (UAG) in the Norwegian Road Administration. – This indicates a great potential for accident reduction if we find effective measures, says Nævestad. He has noted the German test that news mentioned last week: – It looks like the test identifies a significant source of distraction. Given that the new cars have such screens, it will be important to find standardized solutions that reduce the distraction from the screens as much as possible.
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100,000 accidents are blamed on touchscreens in cars – news Vestland
