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ByJoanLowy TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON Distractions — especially talking with passengers and using cell- phones — play a far greater role in car crashes involving teen drivers than has been previously understood, ac- cording to compelling new evidence cited by safety re- searchers. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed nearly 1,700 videos that capture the actions of teen drivers in the moments be- fore a crash. It found that distractions were a factor in nearly 6 of 10 moderate to severe crashes. That's four times the rate in many previous official estimates that were based on police reports. The study is unusual be- cause researchers rarely have access to crash vid- eos that clearly show what drivers were doing in the seconds before impact as well as what was happen- ing on the road. AAA was able to examine more than 6,842 videos from cameras mounted in vehicles, show- ing both the driver and the simultaneous view out the windshield. The foundation got the videos from Lytx Inc., which offers programs that use video to coach drivers in improving their behav- ior and reducing collisions. Crashes or hard-braking events were captured in 1,691 of the videos. They show driver distrac- tion was a factor in 58 per- cent of crashes, especially accidents in which vehicles ran off the road or had rear- end collisions. The most common forms of distrac- tion were talking or other- wise engaging with passen- gers and using a cellphone, including talking, texting and reviewing messages. Other forms of distrac- tion observed in the vid- eos included drivers look- ing away from the road at something inside the vehi- cle, 10 percent; looking at something outside the ve- hicle other than the road ahead, 9 percent; singing or moving to music, 8 per- cent; grooming, 6 percent; and reaching for an object, 6 percent. In one video released by AAA, a teenage boy is seen trying to navigate a turn on a rain-slicked road with one hand on the wheel and a cellphone held to his ear in the other hand. The car crosses a lane of traffic and runs off the road, stop- ping just short of railroad tracks that run parallel to the road. In another video, a driver on a lonely two-lane road at night is shown looking down at an electronic de- vice, apparently texting. While his eyes are off the road, the car crosses the op- posite lane, leaves the road and appears about to strike a mailbox. One teen driver is cap- tured braking hard at the last moment to avoid slam- ming into the back of an SUV stopped or slowed in traffic ahead. Just a mo- ment before, the girl had turned her attention to an- other girl in the front pas- senger seat in an animated conversation. The cam- era shows the shock on the girls' faces as they suddenly realize a crash is imminent. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administra- tion has previously esti- mated that distraction of all kinds is a factor in only 14 percent of all teen driver crashes. The videos provide "in- disputable evidence that teen drivers are distracted in a much greater percent- age of crashes than we pre- viously realized," said Peter Kissinger, the foundation's president and CEO. Past research has shown that teens with multiple passengers in the car are more likely to have acci- dents. The opposite is the case for adults — for older drivers, having a passenger with an extra set of eyes on the road can make driving safer. Teen drivers using cell- phones had their eyes off the road for an average of 4.1 seconds out of the fi- nal 6 seconds leading up to a crash, the AAA study found. Researchers also measured reaction times in rear-end crashes and found that teen drivers using cell- phones failed to react more than half of the time be- fore the impact, meaning they crashed without brak- ing or steering away. AAA and other traf- fic safety groups who pre- viewed the findings said the study shows states should review their licensing re- quirements to restrict the number of passengers in cars driven by teens and change their laws to pro- hibit cellphone use by teen drivers. "The findings of the AAA Report confirm what safety groups have suspected for a long time — distraction is more severe and more com- mon in teen driver crashes than previously found in government data," said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. AAA said it also recom- mends that parents teach teens about the dangers of cellphone use and re- strict passengers during the learning-to-drive process. Teen drivers have the highest crash rate of any age group. About 963,000 drivers age 16 to 19 were involved in police-reported crashes in the U.S. in 2013, the most recent year for available data. These crashes resulted in 383,000 injuries and 2,865 deaths. ONLINE AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety teen driver videos, https://vimeo.com/ aaapublicaffairs/review/ 122313614/989d09b15b SAFETY RESEARCH Di st ra ct io n a fa ct or i n 6 in 1 0 tee n dr iv er c ra sh es THEAAAFOUNDATIONFORTRAFFICSAFETY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A teen driver texts as his vehicle moves to the opposite side of the road as he drives distracted in this frame grab from a video provided by The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. By Holly Ramer The Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. A Dart- mouth College fraternity that partly inspired the 1978 movie "Animal House" has been accused of branding new members while under suspension last fall, but the group's lawyer denies that anyone was hazed or hurt. Alpha Delta, which has a recent history of hazing and other disciplinary vio- lations, was suspended in October for breaking alco- hol rules during one party and hosting another with- out registering it with the college. Officials are now extending that suspension over new allegations, first reported Tuesday by the website Gawker, that mem- bers were branded last fall. Attorney George Ostler said Wednesday that the fraternity acknowledges that a small group of mem- bers voluntarily chose to get body brands, but said the practice was never a condi- tion of membership and has since stopped. "This was viewed as a form of self-expression, similar to body pierc- ing or tattooing," he said. "The facts are that no haz- ing occurred, under ei- ther New Hampshire law or under Dartmouth Col- lege's standards. Contrary to other reports, no one has been injured by this activity." College spokesman Jus- tin Anderson declined to discuss details of the al- legations, including how many students may have been branded or what they may have been branded with, but the college has de- scribed the fraternity's pre- vious behavior. After being on probation for most of the previous three years, the fraternity was suspended in October for hosting an unregistered party for about 70 people in August and for a March 2014 party that featured rum, whiskey and other li- quor without having a des- ignated server or someone checking IDs. That suspension was supposed to end March 29, but Anderson said Dart- mouth is extending it and considering harsher pun- ishment, including perma- nent removal of the frater- nity, if the allegations are founded. Anderson said the new claims came to the admin- istration's attention in De- cember 2014 and the school notified the Hanover Police Department. ALPHA DELTA 'Animal House' frat at Dartmouth accused of branding members By Deb Riechmann The Associated Press WASHINGTON Afghan Pres- ident Ashraf Ghani thanked Congress on Wednesday for billions of American tax dollars and vowed his war- wracked country will be self- reliant within this decade. "We're not going to be the lazy Uncle Joe," he said. In a speech to a joint meeting of Congress, Ghani moved to mend U.S.-Afghan relations that were frayed under former President Ha- mid Karzai. Lawmakers have been critical about the lengthy U.S. troop presence in America's longest war, wasteful spending in Af- ghanistan and were stung by Karzai's anti-American rhetoric. Ghani humbly thanked Congress for the nearly $107 billionithasappropriatedfor Afghanistan so far. He paid homage to the 2,200 U.S. ser- vicemen and -women who lost their lives in the war and the thousands more who were wounded, and thanked the U.S. aid work- ers who built schools, wells and cured the sick. "At the end of the day, it is the ordinary Americans whose hard-earned taxes have over the years built the partnership that has led to our conversation today," he said to applause in the House chamber packed with hun- dreds of lawmakers, digni- taries and guests. Ghani, wearing a gray western suit, peppered his speech with anecdotes about the time he's spent in Amer- ica, noting that he graduated from Columbia University in New York and was in his World Bank office in Wash- ington when the first plane smashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Perhaps trying to shed his image as a technocrat, Ghani recalled that he "ate corned beef at Katz's, New York's greatest, greasiest, pickle- lined melting pot." He touched on themes he hoped would convince law- makers that he will be a re- liable U.S. partner. He ad- mitted that decades of war have resulted in high levels of fraud and graft in Afghan- istan and promised to elim- inate corruption. Ghani also voiced support for women's rights and said he would em- phasize law and justice and focus on self-reliance and economic development. "We don't want your char- ity. We have no more inter- est in perpetuating a child- ish dependence than you have in being saddled with a poor family member who lacks the energy and drive to get out and find a job," Ghani said. That's a tall order for Af- ghanistan. Thenationalunitygovern- ment that Ghani runs with chief executive Abdullah Abdullahhasnotyetseateda full cabinet, and some of the country's 30-plus provinces are still run by acting gov- ernors. The country recently had a $500 million budget shortfall and domestic rev- enues missed targets by 26 percent, forcing the U.S. to step in in recent months to help cover the fiscal gap. More than a third of Af- ghans live below the pov- erty line and the nation's vast mineral resources re- main virtually untapped. Afghanistan also is not at peace, and Ghani's efforts to lure the Taliban to reconcili- ation talks have not yet been fruitful. Just hours before he spoke, at least six people were killed and more than 30 were wounded in a sui- cide car bombing near the presidential palace in Kabul. Ghani is untested as a leader, yet he received a warm reception from both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. The reason: He's not Karzai. House Speaker John Boehner issued a state- ment after the speech call- ing Ghani a "trusted part- ner." And just before Ghani stepped from the chamber, he and Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., who is chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Ser- vices Committee, embraced in a bear hug. Obama said the U.S. would leave its 9,800 troops in Afghanistan in place rather than downsizing to 5,500 by year's end. The size of the U.S. footprint for next year is still to be de- cided, Obama said, but he brushed aside any specu- lation the withdrawal will bleed into 2017. That means the slowdown won't jeopar- dize his commitment to end America's involvement in Af- ghanistan before leaving of- fice. CONGRESS Afghan president says his nation won't be 'lazy Uncle Joe' PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani speaks before a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Select"Subscribe"tabinlowerrightcorner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! This FREE service made possible by the advertisers in TV Select Magazine Kindly patronize and thank them. Click on their ads online to access their websites! FREE online subscription to TV Select Magazine Digital edition emailed to you, every Saturday! 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