- Car insurance company AAA in Utah says taking selfies while driving 'can kill'
- Research shows taking a photo for two seconds while driving means your eyes are off the road for nearly half a football field
- Editors from Oxford Dictionaries made the phrase their Word of 2013
- Said word have evolved form a social media tag to a mainstream term
|
Car insurance company AAA is warning people against taking selfies while driving, saying ‘it can kill’.
This comes just a few days after the word ‘selfie’ was voted Oxford Dictionary’s 2013 word of the year.
The word beat tough competition from twerk, binge-watch and showrooming, as editors said the word has evolved from a niche social media tag into a mainstream term for a self-portrait photograph.
Selfies: Driving while taking a picture of yourself is not a good idea as it could end in a car accident
Car selfie: A girl posts a picture of herself on Twitter while in her car. The AAA says these acts are likely to cause an accident if the vehicle is in motion
But AAA officials in Salt Lake City, Utah, say the new phenomenon is distracting drivers as millions of people post them on social media.
Some drivers have admitted to doing it, according to Fox13[3] , saying they do it usually when they are stopped at a light, not while moving.
AAA’s research shows taking a photo for two seconds while driving means your eyes are off the road for nearly half a football field.
‘Don’t let that driving selfie or video be the last photo you ever take,’ officials said.
Picture time! Leave the photo taking to your friends in the backseat who are not driving
With six-second videos popular on Vine and 15-second videos, the latest feature on Instagram, drivers are distracted for the distance of up to nearly four football fields.
‘You can certainly kill yourself as well as kill other people as well,’ said Rolayne Fairclough with AAA Utah.
Fairclough said it depends on the speed a person is traveling, but that five seconds is a 'great deal of distance especially if you’re in inclement weather or in traffic things can happen and you really need to be focused on the road'.
'You can kill yourself': Rolayne Fairclough with AAA Utah says taking a selfie while driving is deadly
'Annoyed': This driver posts an Instagram photograph of himself on his way to work, saying the other drivers were getting on his nerves
Currently, Utah has a law against texting while driving.
Some other states have similar laws and also require hands-free devices while behind the wheel.
The frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000 per cent since this time last year, according to research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors.
References
- ^ Marie-louise Olson (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ 6 View comments (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Fox13 (fox13now.com)
0 comments:
Post a Comment