Distractions are killing Americans every day on our streets
It was just a few days after Christmas. According to the California Highway Patrol, a 50-year-old Kernville man looked away from the road to answer his cell phone. The man's vehicle careened off the roadway and down an embankment, striking a tree. The man died and his two passengers were injured.
It was another tragedy in what is being called by federal highway officials an "epidemic" of distracted drivers.
As an attorney who has handled many lawsuits involving crashes caused by distracted drivers, I have agonized over the consequences of these avoidable accidents. Perhaps the case that remains most vivid and personally painful to me is the one involving Frank Elliott, a city of Bakersfield parks supervisor.
On April 20, 2000, Frank was standing between two pickup trucks when a driver veered out of traffic on Reliance Drive and smashed into one of the trucks. Frank's legs were pinned by the bumpers of the two trucks.
Rescue crews worked for 20 minutes to free Frank, who lost both of his legs in the accident. The driver told law enforcement officers he was adjusting his radio and did not know he was on a collision course.
Frank recovered from his injuries and has adjusted to life as a double amputee. His pure grit and determination resulted in him returning to work for the city and adapting to walking on artificial limbs.
But the misery inflicted on Frank and his family was so unnecessary. If the driver had just been paying attention, Frank would be standing on his own legs today.
That was a decade ago. By all reports the problem of distracted drivers has only grown. We now have much more distracting us. And we seem addicted by these distractions.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 6,000 people died and more than 500,000 were injured in 2008 by accidents caused by people distracted by talking on their cell phones, text messaging or allowing their eyes to leave the roadway for other reasons.
Legislators in six states and the District of Columbia have passed laws banning the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. In 20 states, it is against the law to text message while driving. Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants Congress to pass incentives and penalties to convince other states to pass similar bans.
But existing bans have not stopped either practice. Fresno State University professor Tamyra Pierce has studied cell phone use and texting. Her findings are that these activities are increasing. Pierce discussed her findings during the nation's first-ever "Distracted Driving Summit," sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation in December in Washington, D.C.
Automakers have responded by rolling out plans to pack future vehicles with even more technology, ostensibly to allow us to have our cake and eat it too. That is, to keep our hands on our steering wheels and our eyes on the road, while we keep yakking on our cell phones. Their plans even will allow us to "tweet" while driving.
David Teater, senior director for transportation for the National Safety Council, reports dozens of studies have shown that just talking on a cell phone -- even with a hands-free device -- impairs a driver's abilities. One study concluded cell phone use delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood-alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.
An outgrowth of December's Distracted Driving Summit was the creation of FocusDriven, a non-profit organization fashioned after Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The president is Jennifer Smith of Texas, whose mother was killed in Oklahoma in 2008 by a driver talking on his cell phone. Founding board members are Shelley Forney of Fort Collins, Colo., whose daughter, Erica, was killed when a woman driving an SUV failed to see her riding her bike; Rob Reynolds of Omaha, Neb., whose daughter, Cady, was killed when a distracted teenage driver ran a red light; Judy Teater of Spring Lake, Mich., whose son, Joe, died when a young woman on a cell phone ran a red light; and Elissa Schee of Citra, Fla., whose daughter, Margay, died when a semi-truck slammed into her stopped school bus.
The intent of FocusDriven (see www.focusdriven.org) is to raise awareness of the need to focus on our driving and understand the consequences when we fail to do so. Organizers say they will press for more states to adopt bans on using cell phones and text messaging when driving.
But new laws are not the entire answer. And a complete ban on cell phone use, including hands-free, is not practical. That technology genie will not go back into the bottle.
The answer is for each of us to take personal responsibility. When we are behind the wheel, turn off our devices and focus on our driving.
Milt Younger is a long time Bakersfield accident attorney. He can be reached by e-mail at miltyounger@live.com.
