It was a Saturday night and I was out on a date. We were in the middle lane, the third car back, sitting at a red traffic light. When the light turned green the first car took off and left us behind ... because the car in front of us didn’t move. The driver’s head was down, and the other people in the car didn’t seem to notice that they weren’t moving. We wondered if the driver was looking at his shoes or had maybe even dozed off. Just as I started to blow the horn and get his attention he looked up and rapidly accelerated through a now yellow light. That left us at the same intersection waiting for the light, again.
Once the light turned green again, we caught up to the same car as they stopped at the next traffic light. Just as we approached the intersection, the light turned green. This time the car moved right away, so we kept driving behind at a safe distance. That’s when we noticed the car was weaving, driving at varying speed and crossing into the lanes on both sides of the road. Our first though was the driver was drunk. It was a late Saturday night and that’s always a high probability.
As we approached the next light, I changed lanes and pulled up on the right side of the car. Once stopped, I looked into the car to see what might be causing the guy to drive like this. My plan was to pull away when the light turned green and get in front of him — away from the swerving and speed changes. That’s when I saw that the driver had young folks in the car with him. From my vantage point I could see he was texting. The passenger in the front seat was fiddling with the controls of a cell phone or an iPod that was plugged into the car and the two passengers were leaning forward. They were all engaged in animated conversation. It looked as if they should have been sitting at a table in a coffee shop, but instead they were in a car. Was the driver distracted? Without a doubt.
How can these simple daily tasks create a problem? When you sit behind the wheel of a car and start multi-tasking, you take away from your driving abilities and attention to the roadway. Driving with all these distractions has become a national focus. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 6,000 people died in distracted driving-related vehicle crashes in 2008.
The biggest distraction? Texting. The evolution of the cellular phone has seen great strides in the past 10 - 15 years. However, the great technologicaladvance has presented a vast increase in challenges to drivers. Ten years ago, 1 out of every 10 drivers may have been using cell phone while driving. Today, it’s not unusual to see 5 out of 10 drivers using cell phones, and 2 of the 5 are probably texting. Texting has made communicating faster and more convenient. But at what expense? Mixingtexting with driving is redefining driving under the influence.
According to a study conducted by the University of Utah, texting while driving is worse that drinking and driving. A driver with an alcohol level of .08 — legally drunk in most states — is four times more likely to be involved in anaccident than a sober, attentive driver. The driver who is texting is eight time more likely to be involved in an accident.
U.S. Transportation Secretary RayLaHood called for a Distracted Driving Summit at the end of September 2009 to address the problem with more than 300 safety experts, researchers, electedofficials and members of the public todevelop recommendations for reducing the problem. The focus grew after several deadly accidents related to textingoccurred within the past year. In oneaccident, a commuter train crash in California involved an operator who wastexting and killed 25 people and injured 135 others. In another mishap, a Florida truck driver admitted to texting moments before a collision with a school bus that killed a student. In yet another, a 17-year-old high school student from Illinois was killed when she drove off the road while texting with friends.
In about five seconds, you can read the average text message. When you take your eyes off the road to do that, even for 3 or 4 seconds, you will travel the length of a football field if you are traveling at 55 mph. Think about that for a moment. How many people can you pass in that distance? How many cars? How many things can appear – a car changing lanes, another pulling into traffic, a pedestrian crossing the street, a motorcyclist coming from a side road – the list goes on. A Carnegie Mellon study shows that driving while using a cell phonereduces the amount of brain activity associated with the driving task by 37 percent. While distracted from the road, you may miss an opportunity to recognize and avoid a potential collision.
Utah was the first state to really crack down on drivers who cause fatal car accidents while texting. Instead of a fine, guilty drivers might get up to 15 years in jail – the same as drunk drivers. According to Utah Senator Lyle Hillyard, ‘‘In effect, a crash caused by such a multi-tasking motorist is no longer considered an accident like the caused by a driver who, say, runs intoanother car because he nodded off at the wheel. It’s a willful act if you choose to drink and drive, and if you choose to text and drive, you’re assuming the same risk.
The texting-while-driving problem is growing and will only stop when we make a conscious decision to stay off the phone and away from the keyboard when we drive. New phone styles, touch-screenmultimedia devices and voice-activated technology are all great improvements to our current technology; but when we try to read or reply to a text while driving a car, we put ourselves and others around us in a grave danger. New laws that ban texting and threaten prison sentences will change the attitudes and actions of some drivers. An executive order signed by President Barrack Obama at the end of September 2009 that bans texting in all government vehicles and personal vehicles used to conduct government business will stop others too.
This executive order bans any form of texting and is defined as, ‘‘...reading from or entering data into any hand-held or other electronic device, including for the purpose of SMS texting, e-mailing, instant messaging obtaining navigational information, orengaging in any other form of electronic data communication.”
The order goes on to define driving as operating motor vehicle on an active roadway with the motor running, includingoperating while temporarily stationarybecause of traffic, a traffic light or stop sign, or otherwise. It does not include operating a motor vehicle with or without the motor running when one has pulled over to the side of or off, an active roadway and has halted in a location where one can safelyremain stationary.
Take the new motto from the National Safety Council and CTIA-The WirelessAssociation. They formally announced a new joint education campaign that targets parents to explain when they’re ‘‘On the Road, Off the Phone.” While this campaign is aimed at teen drivers, the issue applies to drivers of all ages. We should all follow that simple statement and stay off the phone in any form when we’re on the road.
The true root cause to distracted driving is us – the human. You, your family, your friends, me ... we all must take this on as a personal responsibility. At the end of the day we’re accountable for our own actions – the good and bad decisions. Make the right decision starting today. If a text is thatimportant, get off the road and stop in a safe place. Too many facts and studies support the necessity to stay away from texting while driving. Make the right decision to drive safely and make it to your destination. Drive responsibly, safely and in control. Don’t let a quick text ruin your day, or worse, take a life.
Editor’s note: The preceding article is reprinted with permission from the Ground Safety Special Edition 2010 of the Wingman, the U.S. Air Force journal of aviation, ground, space and weapons safety.
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