The purpose of this project is to register how aware drivers are or not of the dangers of using cell phone devices while driving.
The ideas
Though face-to-face and online meetings, our team decided that our project aim would be making people aware of the dangers of using the mobile phone in traffic.
“With the evolution of mobile technology and the business growth of modern gadgets, using mobiles in traffic has become a frequent and very dangerous behavior. The driver is no longer attentive to what is happening around him when he sends text messages or use social media”, says the general director of the DMV in Foz do Iguaçu, Marcos Traad, and he also mentions “Studies show that typing while driving increases by 400% the risk of a traffic accident. Hence, the DMV invests in campaigns to alert possible consequences of this risk behavior, however; unfortunately we are far from a solution to this problem”.
These ideas show that drivers are, each day, using cell phones in inappropriate moments, like in traffic. In Brazil, the use of cell phones while driving is the third biggest cause of road accidents that cause death. According to the data of ABRAMET - Associação Brasileira de Medicina de Tráfego (Brazilian Association of Traffic and Medicine), 150 drivers die daily, and more than 54 thousands every year, as a consequence of this behavior.
In Parana the use of cell phones and smartphones while driving is the sixth infraction most committed by drivers. According to DMV, in 2015, 139.000 people were caught using cell phones while driving. The rate has increased 4% in the last three years.
In Curitiba, the capital, more than 48.000 infractions were registered with driver fines last year, followed by Maringá with about 19.000 and Londrina with 9.000. On the 4th and 5th position respectively, Cascavel and Foz do Iguaçu count 8.390 fines. Ponta grossa and São José dos Pinhais complete the list.
After choosing the topic we wanted to approach and collecting some statistics on the problem, we planned our next steps.
The initiatives
We created a survey with 11 questions related to the use of cell phones and we collected 82 answers. We wanted to know people’s opinions and behaviors regarding the use of cell phone while driving, their perceptions of the danger of this behavior, their opinions regarding the penalties applied to the misuse of cell phone in traffic. Our results show that the surveyed people are aware about the importance of not using it while driving and they agreed with penalties to infractions. There were two findings that drew our attention. 74% of the sample believe the use of cell phone is as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol and 67% of the people considered that a device in the cell phone that would block its use while driving would be a good solution.
It´s up to us then, as conscious students, to collaborate with organizations and individuals that work daily in traffic safety to accomplish awareness on the danger of using the mobile phone in the traffic. In the future, it would be valuable to develop a sensor to minimize the use of cell phones by drivers and avoid tragedies.
