Category: Technology News

Motorists that were behind the wheel and used their smartphones to snap images of a massive crash can find themselves in hot water.

While there are times in which technology news reveals many ways in which to improve our lives and make things easier, a recent situation in the United Kingdom has caused four drivers to be prosecuted for having taken photographs of a freeway accident using their mobile phones.

The Gloucestershire Police said that the activity of snapping the photos caused dangerous driving situations.

The police stated that the drivers in this technology news who took the photos of the traffic accident were so focused on taking the pictures that other drivers were required to hit the brakes or take other evasive action to avoid crashing into them. The drivers, who should have been focused on making sure that they were proceeding safely past the area of the crash, instead chose to take out their mobile phones and try to either photograph or take video footage of an RV that had collided with the center barrier of the M5 freeway, near Michaelwood services.

A police officer reported in this technology news that there were dozens of motorists trying to take pictures.

The accident blocked the third lane of the freeway on the afternoon of July 28 and the many drivers who decided to focus on using their mobile devices to take pictures instead of concentrating on their own driving risked making the situation considerably worse. That said, among all of the motorists who failed to progress legally past the crash, only four were apprehended.

Those four will be prosecuted for having driven without due care and attention, or without consideration to the other road users. That said, there were eight other drivers who were identified in this technology news story, and who will be sent letters of warning with regards to the way that they were using their mobile devices while behind the wheel.

According to a technology news statement released by PC Shelley Holloway, “The actions of several motorists who drove through the scene showed no regard for their own or of other people’s safety, as they used their mobile phones to record or video the wreckage as they passed.”

While organizations are increasingly likely to have a smartphone ad strategy, levels still haven’t reached expectations.

According to a report that has now been issued by Oracle Marketing Cloud and Econsultancy, businesses are now more likely than ever before to have some type of strategy in place for the integration of mobile marketing into their overall promotions and advertising campaigns.

The report showed that while the acknowledgement of importance is there, the integration remains small.

The publication, entitled the “Cross-Channel Marketing Report 2014” showed that marketers and brands are continuing their transition from traditional channels toward digital and mobile marketing. However, in the United Kingdom, while it is clear that companies find that there is considerable importance in using those channels, there hasn’t been a tremendous focus made in terms of actually working them into a campaign.

It is believed that this will soon begin to pick up, as many companies are making their first mobile marketing moves in 2014.

The report showed that 20 percent of companies are now using mobile notifications and push alerts and that these, combined with messaging, mobile apps, and email are viewed by marketers as the areas in which they will best be able to achieve customer retention.

This aligned with a report that was published by the 2014 Internet Trends Report which focused on the market in the United States. This latest report used the same sources as the American one, only using data from the United Kingdom, instead. The U.K. figures showed that while mobile represents 20 percent of a consumer’s total time spent with media, it also represents only 7 percent of total ad spend.

When applied to an actual monetary value, this represents a gap that is worth an estimated £1.9 billion. The shortfall has been attributed to a greater mobile optimization and advertising activity market, in addition to actual ad spending. That said, this still represents a sizeable gap between the actual time spent by consumers and the amount of money spent by marketers.

Equally, though, among the brands and marketers surveyed, 75 percent said that they had some type of mobile marketing integration strategy in place for their campaigns, which represents a year over year growth of 16 percent.