Get Yourself an Upgrade!

Traffic Safety Consultants, Inc., (TSC) is proud to announce a few small upgrades to its Affiliate System Administration Program™ (ASAP™).

You'll access the system as always through the ASAP™ portal at tscaffiliate.com. Effective Monday, August 17, 2009, however, the following enhancements will be live on the site:

Redesigned Log-In Page: The log-in page has received an aesthetic make-over. The page retains its front-end functionality, and you'll still sign in securely — using your usual user name and password — as you always have. It will just look much nicer (we hope!).


Blog Link: We have added a link to the ASAP™ Control Panel page that will give you instant access to the "TSC Affiliate News" blog. An indicator will display (for seven days) when a new blog entry has been posted. This implementation means that you will no longer be receiving e-mailed notices of updates from Rick, the blog's editor. To read the blog, just click on the link and the blog will open in a new browser window.

At TSC, we are constantly striving to improve the operational experience of our affiliates, and our dedicated IT team has been hard at work behind the scenes. We hope these changes will take what is already the traffic safety education industry's leading enterprise management software application and make it even better!

Driving While InTEXTicated?

Cell phones and other mobile communication devices have become a part of our everyday life. Indeed, they can save time, effort, even our lives. But misused, they can be deadly, too!

A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute highlights these dangers (CNN article). Investigators found that reaching for an electronic device, dialing a mobile phone, and holding a phone conversation all caused the risk of a collision to rise. Not surprisingly, however, it was texting that caused the real problems. The study found that truckers who text message while driving are 23 times more likely to crash or to get into a near-wreck than undistracted drivers. The reasons are obvious: Even skilled multi-taskers have trouble concentrating on the road while composing a message, manipulating a tiny keyboard, and occasionally glancing at the screen—all while guiding a multi-ton vehicle through traffic.

While Florida currently does not regulate drivers' use of mobile communication devices, that could soon change. Under legislation recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, states that do not ban texting by drivers could forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

We shouldn't need Congress to remind us of the dangerous, however. Ninety percent of the sensory information needed to safely operate a motor vehicle is visual, and anything that draws a driver's attention away from the roadway for more than a few seconds is a serious distraction that could have deadly results. In short, remind your students: don't text and drive!