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hkuo

Summmary:

- a million irrelevant paragraphs to make this guy seem like someone you can relate to

- guy driving on wet road

- picks up phone

- looks up and sees he's about to crash into another car

- swerves across median into oncoming traffic

- head-on collision with a Chevy Silverado

- more irrelevant stuff about what goes on in those microseconds of the crash to try to scare you

- explanations of what you should do in inevitable crash events

Editor anyone? Interesting read anyway, but I probably read every 3rd or 4th sentence.

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I beg to differ. The article did a good job of blending physiological fact, psychological data and accident statistics in a coherent narrative.

As for the stuff making you relate to the guy - well, the whole point is that everybody believes it can't happen to them. The idea is - every fatal crash has a backstory, and yours doesn't protect you from it.

[Edit: the last link in that article might be of more interest to HN too: http://www.zoomsafer.com, which on quick perusal seems to be a service that automatically detects you are driving (presumably my monitoring your speed) and automatically autoresponds to calls by telling them where you are]

I saw this on new, thought it was interesting...but the writing style was just too disconnected. No semblance of narrative, especially coming from a source that gets paid to write.

Hi, this is Eleanor Jones, marketing manager for ZoomSafer. Frossie, thanks for highlighting how technology like ZoomSafer's safe driving software can prevent tragic crashes by reducing mobile phone use while driving.

ZoomSafer prevents distracted driving by using your phone's GPS to detect when you're driving and automatically activating 'safe drive mode'. In 'safe drive mode', ZoomSafer locks your phone's keypad and screen so you can't text, email, or browse the web while driving - completely eliminating the need to look at your phone when your eyes should be on the road scanning for potential hazards.

The unfortunate situation detailed in the Men's Health article is one that's entirely too common - there were 6,000 deaths from distracted driving in 2008 alone. Visit www.zoomsafer.com to learn more about you can stay safely focused on the road.

A good use of the narrative fallacy goes a long way in fulfilling the objective of stuffing people full of actionable safety information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_fallacy#The_narrative...

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