BlackBerry Outage Linked to Massive Drop in Traffic Accidents [telecom]

BlackBerry Outage Linked to Massive Drop in Traffic Crashes

by Brad Aaron October 17, 2011

According to data released last week by NYPD, distracted drivers were the leading cause of city traffic crashes in August. Of 16,784 incidents, 1,877 were attributed to "driver inattention/distraction," while an additional 10 were linked specifically to phones or other electronic devices.

While NYPD reports make it impossible to decipher exactly how many city drivers are texting or talking before a crash - we'll go out on a limb and assume it was more than 10 - the recent BlackBerry service outage in Europe, Africa and the Middle East served to illustrate the extent of the problem in two cities. The National reports:

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Reply to
Monty Solomon
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......... I love this report - no use whatsoever of the bogus term "accident" that people have used for years as an excuse for someone doing something wrong on the roads.

It is no "accident" when someone deliberately takes their attention from the road to pander to their desire to use a phone or whatever, it is

100% deliberate negligence.

One less use of a "weasel word" in our modern life (maybe), now let's hope we can also make some inroads on the countless others.....

-- Regards, David.

David Clayton Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have.

***** Moderator's Note *****

The original subject was written as "traffic crashes", but "traffic" might mean *Internet* traffic, and "crashes" might mean a *computer* crash, whereas *everybody* knows what a "traffic accident" is.

Welcome to my world.

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
David Clayton

It is refreshing to see that I am not the only one to share this perspective. With the courts allowing law enforcement access to comm devices, perhaps there will be a way in the not too distant future to ascertain if a driver was actively using a device at the time of a collision.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

While taking your attention away from the road may increase the likelihood of the incident, it doesn't make the incident expected or intentional.

Perhaps you're thinking of this:

  1. an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause

I'd agree that accidents due to negligence have an apparent cause, so they don't fit this definition.

Reply to
Barry Margolin

I have seen devices on the market that record video from your vehicle up to a certain duration and then loop over it (a bit like the "Black Box" devices in aircraft). How long until someone integrates this sort of thing into a mobile phone/comms device so that someone, somewhere may be recording you as the driver and also whatever is happening on the road?

You could become your own "Big Brother"!

Reply to
David Clayton

Barry, David's complaint was NOT that negligent behavior makes the crash intentional. Intent is not a factor in these situations, so there's no reason to bring it up.

In police reports, "accident" was supposed to be a term used without assignment of fault, indicating only lack of intent. The trouble is that it doesn't sound that way to the listener's ear.

I certainly disagree that a collision in which driving while distracted is a contributing factor is unexpected. It's a driver's duty to be prepared for changing circumstances; he must pay attention.

Reply to
Adam H. Kerman

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