Campaign will tell Floridians not to talk on phones, text while drivingAgain we say, What?????????????????
That’s the message of a new Florida public education campaign aimed at stopping people from talking on a cell phone or texting while driving.
"Just hang up". The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles will begin its “Stay Alive, Just Drive” campaign next week.
Florida law doesn’t prohibit drivers from texting or talking on the phone while driving; it simply states that drivers must keep their cars under control at all times.
According to a 2003 National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration report, researchers estimate that 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in the United States in 2002 could be blamed on drivers using cell phones.
Like the Department of Highway Safety's RIDE PROUD DRESS LOUD effort to save motorcyclists lives was/is almost as cruel a joke as the state of Florida's contention that forcing people to take a Basic Riders Course based on Motorcycle Safety Foundation Curriculum will save lives (it doesn't. There is no Nationally peer reviewed study done by any reputable source that demonstrates MRF curriculum is worth a damn), this current approach will be about as effective as Nancy Reagans, "just say no!" to drugs.
The futility of which we will get to in a moment. But we first have to wonder how the Tallahassee Democrat was able to take the fine piece of reporting by the New York time which we summarized here
(link)
We hate to say we told you so-government coverup results in countless deaths due to distracted driving
and reduce it to PABLUM?We really do have to wonder when you consider the outstanding investigative reporting they have been doing with the Rachael Hoffman story and then publish something like this:
Risky Ride: More More Motorcycle Deaths Fuel Debate over Helmet Laws
Which we feel we were able to substantially discredit here, on 3-28-08:
Tallahassee Democrat looks as if it is endorsing helmets
which we forwarded to the TD which of course went nowhere. And since more local area folk read the TD than this site then, more local area folk will continue to believe in the myths or the minimization of the problems that will insure that the carnage on the killing fields of Florida highways continues.
We provided the TD, in response to the RIDE PROUD DRESS LOUD kick off a 17 page document detailing the inadequacies of the state of Florida when it comes to Motorcycle Safety Issues. Which we can only assume went into the circular file as we heard or saw nothing more of it. In fact we personally placed it in the hand of the TD reporter covering the event. Who just happened to omit from his coverage of the event the fact that there were dissenting voices at the event (The AP got it?).
In that Packet was the Florida Department Highway Safety's own admission to the Federal Government no less, could not be relied upon. We would consider that somewhat newsworthy. Apparently not the TD?
Suspecting such may happen we made the info available electronically. Oh well, we have been known to piss in the wind before.
So shall we piss in the wind a little further and wonder about this "Just Hang up" gig. Our should we just keep laughing at the insanity of the people that come up with such idiotic cutsey's that we pay with tax payer dollars to do little else but to insure that Florida roadway fatalities will continue to rise?
Oh hell, we'll piss in the wind.
Dare to Keep Your Kids off DARE
That three-word mantra "Just Say No" became a national punch line for a reason: It didn't keep kids away from drugs. Drug use among teenagers dropped steadily from the early 1980s until 1992, mirroring a decline in drug use among adults. But this downward trend began before the anti-drug curricula developed in the 1980s, exemplified by Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), could have had any impact. The drop was detected in surveys of students who had never heard of DARE or Just Say No. And by the early 1990s, when students who were exposed to DARE and similar programs in grade school and middle school reached their late teens, drug use among teenagers was going up again. In the 2002 Monitoring the Future Study, 53 percent of high school seniors said they had used illegal drugs, compared to 41 percent in 1992. Past-month use rose from 14 percent to 25 percent during the same period.
Don't just say no - Berkeley researcher Dr. Joel Brown questions the effectiveness of the federal government's antidrug education policies
Brown says the reason the zero tolerance, or "no use," policy has stayed in place despite its demonstrable failure is not the fault of educators but of policy makers who are more concerned with politics than science. His 1994 study, for instance, was commissioned by the California Department of Education. But the department immediately disavowed the study when it concluded that a decade of DARE and similarly oriented programs would likely lead to increased drug use among minors -- a prediction borne out by subsequent research and current statistics. "The discussion about drugs focuses on who is tough and who can be tougher, while the children suffer," Brown said.
Drug bustThe interesting thing about the above studies is they were done at the height of the "Just say no" campaigns. A more recent study about studies that study the effectiveness of Just saying no to sex
That, of course, sounds encouraging; the only problem is that it's not true. Perhaps the best that can be said of the Just Say No ideology is that it makes parents and teachers feel better. A 1988 analysis published in the Journal of Drug Education found that although the sessions probably didn't keep kids away from drugs, they did reassure "parents that the schools are at least trying to control substance abuse among students." Meanwhile, a new University of Michigan study finds that, after years of decline, marijuana, cocaine, and LSD use is actually rising among eighth graders.
is enlightening:
I'm sorry, you really have to read the whole gig. We quoted that particular statement because,Just Say No-To Bad Science
A study of another abstinence program found it did a phenomenal job of getting girls to postpone their first sexual encounter. One problem: it evaluated only girls who stayed in the program, says Maynard. Girls who had sex were thrown out.
a. It is so illustrative of how studies can prove the outcome they wish to prove, and
b. I just thought it was funny as hell.
Then again it may be more than appropriate that the last reference we made was to a study on sexual activity studies. Because if the Florida Department is going to use tax payer dollars on a "Just hang up"
campaign, then more people will die as we get "screwed" again.
It just may be that placing a condom over the Florida Department of highway safety may be the most
cost effective measure yet.
Ya'll hang up now, ya hear! HEY CAN YA HEAR NE NOW?Add to Technorati Favorites
