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Article of the Week

Week of 3/20-3/24
Directions: Complete all steps below, which includes annotating, answering questions, and margin
notes. You should read this article multiple times before Friday. Be prepared to share your thoughts,
ideas, and opinions on Friday!

Step 1 : Read the article. Use the coding we practiced in class to annotate the article. You can use
the following options:
* important idea + you agree X you disagree

! surprising idea __ Underline a specific line that you Circle a word you dont know-try to
found interesting guess the meaning using context
clues

? you are wondering about that idea

Step 2: Read the article a second time. Number the paragraphs. Read the article carefully and
make notes in the margin. Notes should include:
The 5Ws:
Who is involved in the text?
What is the main subject of the text?
When is the event of the text happening?
Where is the event of the text taking place?
Why is this text written? What is the point?
Comments that show that you understand the article. (A summary or statement of the main
idea of important sections may serve this purpose. You could also [bracket] the paragraph and
write the GIST.)
Questions you have that show what you are wondering about as you read.
Notes that differentiate between fact and opinion.
Make a connection (another event, another historical movement) with something you read (no
personal connections!)
Observations about how the writers strategies (organization, word choice, perspective,
evidence) and choices affect the article.

Step 3: Read the article again noting anything you might have missed during the other reads of the
text.
Step 4: Answer the questions that follow the article. Be sure to use evidence from the article when
necessary.
Notes on my
Driven to Distraction thoughts,
reactions and
Drivers are getting increasingly distracted by technology behind the wheelwith questions as I
tragic consequences. Could a new roadside enforcement tool for police make a read:
difference?

By Patricia Smith The New York Times Upfront Magazine March 13, 2017
In November, 20-year-old Onasi Olio-Rojas was live-streaming on Facebook
while weaving in and out of traffic and speeding at more than 100 miles per hour
on a crowded Rhode Island roadway. He lost control of his Honda Civic, smashing
into a garbage truck and a concrete barrier. Pulled from the mangled wreckage,
he was critically injured, but managed to survive.
Six days later, 18-year-old Brooke Miranda Hughes wasnt as lucky. She was
also live-streaming on Facebook when a tractor-trailer slammed into the back of
her Suzuki Forenza on a Pennsylvania highway. Hughes and her 19-year-old
passenger were both killed.
Horrific accidents like these are evidence of what authorities say has become
a crisis of distracted driving. Drivers are using apps and social media, texting and
talking on their phones, and interacting with increasingly complex multimedia on
their car dashboards when they should be keeping their eyes on the road. The
result is the largest annual percentage increase in traffic fatalities in 50 years.
This is a crisis that needs to be addressed now, says Mark Rosekind, former
head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
When distracted driving entered the national consciousness a decade ago,
the problem mainly involved people who made calls or sent texts from their
cellphones. Now a host of new technologies are taking driver's eyesor at least
their mindsoff the traffic around them. Car Wi-Fi is common, as are built-in
systems for giving voice commands to phones, and drivers are mounting tablets
and smartphones on their dashboards. Snapchat allows drivers to post photos
that record the speed of the vehicle. The navigation app Waze rewards drivers
with points when they report traffic jams and accidents.

Surge in Deaths
Its all led to a boom in internet use in vehicles that safety experts say is
contributing to a surge in highway deaths.
After steady declines over the past four decades, highway fatalities began to
tick up in 2015, the most recent year for which numbers are available. That year,
more than 35,000 people died on American roadsa 7 percent increase over the
previous year.
The government hasnt yet determined how many of those traffic deaths were
caused by
distraction. But insurance companies, which closely track car accidents, are
convinced that the increasing use of electronic devices is the biggest cause,
according to Robert Gordon of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of
America.
Its not just drivers who are putting lives at risk. Several deadly train crashes
over the past decade have been attributed to train engineers who were distracted
by texting. In 2008, 25 people were killed and 102 injured when two trains in Notes on my
California crashed into each other after an engineer who was texting missed a red thoughts,
light. reactions and
questions as I
read:
Texting & Selfies
Lawmakers have tried to stop distracted driving, without much success. Since
2007, 46 states and the District of Columbia have banned texting while driving; 14
states and D.C. have banned the use of handheld devices while driving. Yet the
problem seems to be getting worse. Americans confess in surveys that theyre still
texting while driving, as well as using Facebook and Snapchat and taking selfies.
In a 2015 survey by Erie Insurance, a third of drivers admitted to texting while
driving, and three-quarters said theyd seen other drivers do it.
The federal government wants more phones to include a driver mode that
would block features that create distractions for drivers. Several states have
increased the penalties for distracted driving, hoping to deter people from using
their phones. But authorities say its very hard to enforce distracted-driving laws,
mainly because police must prove that someone they pulled over was, in fact,
sending a text or using an app.
Now, lawmakers in New York State are proposing a controversial solution:
giving police officers a new device called a Textalyzer thats the digital equivalent
of the Breathalyzer, the test thats long been used by police to test the blood
alcohol level of drivers (see Meet the Textalyzer, below). An officer arriving at
the scene of an accident could use the Textalyzer to tap into a phone to check for
recent activity. Failure to submit to the test could lead to the suspension of a
drivers license, similar to the consequences for refusing a Breathalyzer.
We need something on the books where peoples behavior can change,
says New York State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who co-sponsored the bill. If
police have a Textalyzer, he says, people are going to be more afraid to put their
hands on the cellphone.

The New Drunk Driving?


Many public safety advocates say the current crisis with distracted driving is
similar to the challenge the nation faced tackling drunk driving in the 1980s.
Distracted driving is not being treated as seriously as drunk driving, and it
needs to be, says Candace Lightner, the founder of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, who helped found a new group last year, Partnership for Distraction-Free
Driving.
Distracted driving is dangerous, devastating, crippling, and its a killer,
Lightner says, and still socially acceptable.

BY THE NUMBERS
5: AVERAGE NUMBER of seconds your eyes are off the road when sending a
text. If youre going 55mph, thats enough time to cover the length of a football
field. | SOURCE: Distraction.gov
660,000: NUMBER of drivers in the U.S. using cellphones while driving right now.
| SOURCE: Distraction.gov
30%: PERCENTAGE of drivers who say theyve texted while driving; 75 percent
say theyve seen other drivers do it. | SOURCE: Erie Insurance, 2015 Survey
Notes on my
Meet the Textalyzer
thoughts,
reactions and
Its a controversial new high-tech tool that could catch drivers texting
questions as I
behind the wheel
read:
The Textalyzer, a device that would let police determine at the scene of an
accident if a driver was using a phone, is the brainchild of Ben Lieberman.
Liebermans 19-year-old son, Evan, was killed in a 2011 accident in New York
State caused by distracted driving.
After his sons death, Lieberman spent months trying to gain access to phone
records, which ultimately showed that the driver of the car his son was in had
been texting.
We kept hearing theres no such thing as a Breathalyzer for distracted
driving, he says, so we set out to create oneand to pass legislation to support
it.
But the idea of letting police tap into phones on the spotwithout a warrant
from a courtmakes privacy advocates nervous.
It really invites police to seize phones without justification or warrant, says
Donna Lieberman (no relation to Ben), the executive director of the New York
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 2014, the Supreme Court (in Riley v. California) ruled that police cant
search the contents of a cellphone without a warrant, even after an arrest. But
supporters of the Textalyzer say the device wouldnt violate this standard because
it wouldnt be able to access any private information; it would simply tell the police,
within about 90 seconds, whether anyone has activated a keyboard, typed on a
keyboard, or swiped the screen of the device. As an additional privacy protection,
the officer doesnt even need to touch the phone; he can use the device in close
proximity to it.
The authors of the New York bill that would authorize police to use the
Textalyzer say theyve based the concept on the same implied consent legal
theory that allows police to use the Breathalyzer: Because driving is a privilege,
rather than a right, it comes with conditions and can be revoked. When drivers get
a license, they are, in effect, consenting in advance to a Breathalyzer, or else they
risk the suspension of their license.
Other states, including Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Tennessee, have already expressed interest in the Textalyzer.
Ben Lieberman believes that increasing the likelihood of getting caught would
go a long way toward preventing people from using their phones behind the
wheel. The Textalyzer, he says, could be an integral part of seeing a vast
improvement. Patricia Smith
1. Define the following words using context clues from the text.
consciousness

deter

advocates

brainchild

warrant

Directions: Use the article to answer the questions below. Remember to use specific evidence as needed.

2. What is the article mostly about?

3. Why do you think experts like Mark Rosekind, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, describe distracted driving as a crisis? Do you agree with their assessment? Use specific
evidence from the text.

4. Summarize the central ideas in the section Surge in Deaths.

5. How does the author support the claim that lawmakers have tried to stop distracted driving, without much
success? Use specific evidence from the text.
6. Explain why its difficult to enforce distracted-driving laws. Use specific evidence from the text.

7. Analyze the authors purpose in the section Meet the Textalyzer. Use specific evidence from the text.

8. What is more importantdrivers privacy rights or public safety? Explain. Use specific evidence from the
text.
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Name___________________________________________

Discern

Outcome Target Not Yet Meets Standards Exceeds Standards

Selects textual evidence See below Student selects text Student cites multiple pieces of textual evidence that
that supports analysis on ways to evidence that connects to clearly connect to her ideas and support analysis of the
and inferences improve and supports her ideas. text.

Ways to improve this outcome: ___ use specific evidence that supports your ideas,____ when evaluating you thoroughly discuss
your evidence in more than one sentence, ___ other:

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