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August 7, 2003
Distracted driver study coverage
Today's round-up includes reports about a new study on distracted drivers
conducted by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. AAA, which funded
the study, released the results along with comments by UNC researcher Jane
Stutts at a Washington, D.C., news conference. In Chapel Hill, News Services
and the center held a briefing for N.C. media. A sampling of these results follows:Drivers distracted by more than just phones, study finds
National Associated Press
Even when they knew cameras were watching, drivers in a U.S. study were caught
in all manner of distracting activities, from applying eye makeup to opening and
reading their mail. ... The study, released by AAA, the auto club, and researchers
at the University of North Carolina, tracked 70 drivers from North Carolina and
Pennsylvania.
This AP story has also appeared in the following publications known to date:
The New York Times. The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Chicago
Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Houston Chronicle, The Buffalo News,
The Orlando Sentinel, The Dallas Morning News, South Florida Sun-Sentinel,
The Tallahassee Democrat and The Fayetteville Observer. The Los Angeles
Times also published a staff-written story, for which no online links are available.The following placements also mention the university:
Risks of distraction (Editorial)
USA Today
Cellphones in Cars -- Not So Bad?
The Wall Street Journal
(Note: The Wall Street Journal requires an online subscription to access articles.)Driver study: Cell phones not top distraction
CNN-TV
Drivers Distracted by Phones, Eating, Grooming
Reuters (international news wire)
Motorists often engage in distracting activities, study says
Knight Ridder (wire service)
(Note: This Knight-Ridder story has appeared in The Miami Herald, The
Boston Globe, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The
Kansas City Star, The Wichita Eagle, Centre Daily Times, San Jose
Mercury News, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) and The Myrtle Beach
Sun-News)Cell phones just one of many driving distractions, AAA says
Scripps Howard (national wire service)
Distracted drivers pose safety hazard
United Press International (international wire service)
Both hands on the wheel? Hardly
Philadelphia Inquirer
(Note: This staff-written article has also appeared in The Wichita Eagle.)Study finds that distracted driving is all over the roads (Commentary)
The Detroit Free Press
Driven to distraction (Editorial)
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.)
Habits driving people to distraction
The Boulder Daily Camera (Colo.)
Study: Phones not top distraction on road
Belleville News-Democrat (Ill.)
Study reveals main causes of drivers' distraction
The Bradenton Herald (Fla.)
Driver inattention high, study shows
The Reno Gazette-Journal (Nev.)
What Are Common Distractions To Drivers?
WPXI-TV (NBC, Pittsburgh)
Drivers, don't touch that dial
Charlotte Observer
Drivers driven to distraction, UNC study finds
News and Observer
UNC study: Distractions abound for motorists
The Herald-Sun
***
Current International and National Coverage
Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina
people and programs cited recently in the media:No government was to blame for SARS (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
One by one, World Health Organization warnings against travel to Chinese cities
have been lifted, and the feeding frenzy to uncover reasons for the evolution of the
Sars outbreak in China is dying down. Still, I am concerned that the tendency to
blame the Chinese - even when blame was deserved - prevents us all from
appreciating some of the most important lessons of Sars.
(Note: Gail E. Henderson is a professor of social medicine at the University
of North Carolina School of Medicine. The South China Morning Post requires
a subscription to access articles.)Debate Resumes on the Safety of Depression's Wonder Drugs
The New York Times
Warnings by drug regulators about the safety of Paxil, one of the world's most
prescribed antidepressants, are reopening seemingly settled questions about a whole
class of drugs that also includes Prozac and Zoloft. ... "In 1991, we said there wasn't
sufficient evidence to support a link between these drugs and suicide," said Dr.
Jeffrey A. Lieberman, a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University
of North Carolina and a member of the panel.
(Note: This article also appeared in The Charlotte Observer. The New York Times
requires free registration to access articles.)Dislike a book? Say so (Commentary)
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
In the world created by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond, if you give a mouse a
cookie, it leads to all sorts of consequences -- some logical, some mischievous,
some surprising. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, if you give a
freshman a reading assignment, it leads to denunciation of administrators as
conniving leftists determined to in-doctrinate impressionable teen-agers. Or so it
seems.
(Note: News Services assisted the writer.)Tobacco Firm Tries to Lure Celeb Smokers
Associated Press
A tobacco company is offering a free lifetime supply of cigarettes to celebrity
smokers as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign to raise the public profile of its
recently launched brand. ... The celebrity campaign could backfire for Freedom,
said Paul Bloom, a professor of marketing at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.
State and Local Coverage
New dean shouldn't wear three hats (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Instead of cracking jokes about how hard it'll be to find someone who can do
everything required of UNC's medical school dean, system President Molly Broad
perhaps should give more thought to whether it's time to lighten the dean's load.
NCCU leads in minority contracts for UNC bond projects
The Herald-Sun
The Durham chapter of the NAACP formed a committee last month to investigate
whether N.C. Central University has awarded enough construction contracts to
black-owned businesses. ... The state's two flagship campuses -- UNC Chapel
Hill and N.C. State University -- also lag behind NCCU and other schools
UNCG chiller is good neighbor, Carolina town-gown panel finds
The Herald-Sun
From the front porch of his home on the UNC Greensboro campus, Jack Wyrick
hears little more than a faint but steady buzz from the massive parking deck across
the residential street. ... In trying to decide the merits of a similar proposed facility
on the UNC Chapel Hill campus, members of a town-gown committee and assorted
other university and town officials spent an afternoon in Greensboro on Wednesday,
examining the 8-year-old facility and its effect on the surrounding area.
The living and the dead (Editorial)
The Herald-Sun
When Bill Friday speaks, people listen. Lately, the retired president of the University
of North Carolina system has been speaking about plans at UNC Chapel Hill to put
a parking deck and water chiller plant adjacent to the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.
Imposing religion on politics (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News and Observer
I'm a constitutional lawyer by trade. I'm also a Catholic. And I remain reasonably
well committed to both undertakings. A couple of recent events could lead one to
conclude that these two positions are in powerful tension.
(Note: Gene Nichol is dean and the Burton Craige professor of law at the
UNC School of Law.)Actors bugged by nuts, but press on
The Herald-Sun
This show must go on regardless of rain, mosquitoes -- and upstaging chipmunks.
Nut-throwing rodents have also provided both challenges and entertainment for the
cast of "The Phantom Tollbooth" during rehearsals at the outdoor Forest Theatre
at UNC, director Emma Nadeau said.
Note: If you have any questions about Carolina in the News, please call Cathleen Keyser or Mike McFarland at News Services, (919) 962-2091 or news@unc.edu or
mike_mcfarland@unc.eduNote: Web links on this page are time-sensitive,
so stories might not be available after the day they first appeared.
