Dying to Text
By Sharon Weltz
It was a typical Friday night on February 18, 2011, as Ashley drove down Highway 12 near Rochester, Washington. According to phone records Ashley texted, “Oh, you like me, we're going to have fun,” and hit send. Ashley’s vehicle crashed head on into an oncoming Freightliner Truck. The driver of the truck was uninjured, but Ashley Davis-Jones was pronounced dead at the scene. She was only 22 years old.
Despite Washington State’s efforts to strengthen existing distracted driving laws making it a primary offense to use handheld cell phones while driving, drivers continue to do so.
“I preached constantly ‘do not text and drive’," Ashley’s mother, Dianne Jones, told KOMO 4 News. The number of injuries and deaths related to texting while driving is rising.
According to records of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), in 2009 5,474 people were killed and almost 500,000 were injured in accidents where distracted driving was involved. Yet texting remains pervasive among U.S. drivers.
In fact, of the U.S. drivers on the road every day, 38 percent compose at least one text message, 40 percent read at least one text message, 25 percent read e-mails and 40 percent draft an e-mail while driving, reports a Strategy Analytics Consumer Insights study.
Younger drivers are much more likely to use their cell phone while driving. A 2011 national survey by Consumer Reports National Research Center found that 63 percent of respondents under age 30 reported using a handheld phone while driving, and 30 percent texted while driving.
Incidence of cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle was less among older drivers, but concerning none the less. Of the respondents who were 30 years old or older, 41 percent reported using a handheld phone while driving and 9 percent admitted to texting while driving. Any use of an electronic device while driving significantly increases chances of having an accident.
For example, a driver texting is 23 times more likely to have a collision than a driver who has their full attention on the road. Some experts now consider texting while driving to be even more dangerous than drunk driving.
Car & Driver magazine conducted a study to measure stopping distances under four different types of impairment. The study arranged for a controlled environment on a rented airport taxiway. Stopping distances were measured for an unimpaired driver to establish a baseline, and then compared to stopping distances for a legally drunk driver with a blood alcohol level of .08, a driver reading e-mail and a driver composing and sending a text message.
The focus was on measuring the driver’s reaction times when traveling at 35 mph and then at 70 mph. The results showed that drunk drivers were less impaired than those distracted with a hand-held phone. A sober driver responded quickly, taking only .54 seconds to brake. The legally drunk driver took an extra four feet to brake. The driver reading e-mail took an additional 36 feet to brake, and the driver sending a text message took a whopping seventy feet to brake. Studies like these have sent alarms across the country.
At this writing, 30 states and Washington D.C have banned texting while driving. Arizona has unsuccessfully tried to pass a statewide ban for the past two years, but legislators continue to put forth an effort to have an ordinance pass into law. Currently Phoenix is the only city in Arizona to pass an ordinance banning texting while driving, with violators receiving up to a $250 citation. Tragic accounts of injury and death as a result of distracted driving are recounted on the DOT’s website, www.distractio.gov.
On Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Sarah Edwards, 18, was driving down a rural two-lane road in her town of Chocowinity, N.C. The road was a short-cut to school. Eyewitness News 9 learned that Sarah was reading a text message when her 1988 Honda Accord drifted across the center line and into the path of a loaded logging truck. The driver of the truck told Sara’s family what had happened in the final seconds before the crash. Sara’s mother, Tracy O'Carroll, recalls the truck drivers chilling words, "She never looked up". Sarah had died on impact. Just 14 months earlier, North Carolina had made texting while driving a primary offense. And therein lies the problem with texting bans: They are difficult to enforce.
Despite efforts to reduce injury accidents by implementing a ban on texting, drivers continue to text anyway. As long as texting laws continue to be ignored, thousands will continue to suffer injuries and loss of life.
A study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in 2010 revealed that accidents had not declined in four states after texting bans were passed.
"You can pass all the laws you want, but if they're not enforced, they're not really good laws," said Ray LaHood, Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation.
Accidents caused by distracted driving are not limited to private citizens.
The incidence of cell-phone related accidents among federal and company fleet drivers is a costly concern. Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers and private citizens are basically driving blind when engaged in texting behind the wheel.
With each text, drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. “At 55 mph (or 80.7 feet per second), this equates to a driver traveling 371 feet, the approximate length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the roadway. At 65 mph (or 95.3 feet per second), the driver would have traveled approximately 439 feet without looking at the roadway,” reports the DOT. The ongoing acts of composing, sending and reading text messages repeatedly incurs even greater risks. As more and more data becomes available, more and more federal and private agencies are passing a ban on texting while driving.
In September 2010, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) and DOT announced that almost 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations had adopted distracted driving policies, covering approximately 10.5 million workers nationwide. Federal employees are already prohibited from texting while driving, and the DOT banned commercial drivers from texting while driving as well.
While passing ordinances is admirable, there is more to be done. An emphasis on law enforcement and an increase in public awareness campaigns has proven to be an effective strategy in the efforts to changing driver behavior.
High-visibility police enforcement and public awareness campaigns were tested in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut. Half-way thought the campaign, “Hartford had a 56 percent drop in handheld cell-phone use and texting declined 68 percent. In Syracuse, handheld use was down 38 percent and texting was down 42 percent,” said the DOT.
"We know there is a dramatic change in behavior when somebody gets a ticket, when a law is enforced," LaHood says.
Robbin Cabelus, Connecticut's Transportation Planning Director said that the combination of media campaigns and increased enforcement continues to be effective. The initial increase in law enforcement’s attention toward catching violators took offenders by surprise. Many offenders claimed that they didn't think they would get caught. Law enforcement’s commitment to enforcing the no texting law soon became widely reported.
Making people aware of the problem through public awareness campaigns was also an effective part of their strategy. “Sixty-six percent of respondents who reduced or stopped such behaviors said they did so because of reading or hearing about the dangers. Twenty percent said they were influenced by media campaigns,” the study concluded.
The DOT’s campaign to raise awareness and heighten law enforcement were key to reducing distracted driving related accidents and changing driver behavior and attitudes in Hartford and Syracuse. This is good news for other communities struggling to promote change. But everything really boils down to individual conduct.
Both Ashley Davis-Jones and Sarah Edwards are dead, as are thousands more who have lost their lives while texting. The parents and friends ask others to help them spread their message that no text is worth a life.
It was a typical Friday night on February 18, 2011, as Ashley drove down Highway 12 near Rochester, Washington. According to phone records Ashley texted, “Oh, you like me, we're going to have fun,” and hit send. Ashley’s vehicle crashed head on into an oncoming Freightliner Truck. The driver of the truck was uninjured, but Ashley Davis-Jones was pronounced dead at the scene. She was only 22 years old.
Despite Washington State’s efforts to strengthen existing distracted driving laws making it a primary offense to use handheld cell phones while driving, drivers continue to do so.
“I preached constantly ‘do not text and drive’," Ashley’s mother, Dianne Jones, told KOMO 4 News. The number of injuries and deaths related to texting while driving is rising.
According to records of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), in 2009 5,474 people were killed and almost 500,000 were injured in accidents where distracted driving was involved. Yet texting remains pervasive among U.S. drivers.
In fact, of the U.S. drivers on the road every day, 38 percent compose at least one text message, 40 percent read at least one text message, 25 percent read e-mails and 40 percent draft an e-mail while driving, reports a Strategy Analytics Consumer Insights study.
Younger drivers are much more likely to use their cell phone while driving. A 2011 national survey by Consumer Reports National Research Center found that 63 percent of respondents under age 30 reported using a handheld phone while driving, and 30 percent texted while driving.
Incidence of cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle was less among older drivers, but concerning none the less. Of the respondents who were 30 years old or older, 41 percent reported using a handheld phone while driving and 9 percent admitted to texting while driving. Any use of an electronic device while driving significantly increases chances of having an accident.
For example, a driver texting is 23 times more likely to have a collision than a driver who has their full attention on the road. Some experts now consider texting while driving to be even more dangerous than drunk driving.
Car & Driver magazine conducted a study to measure stopping distances under four different types of impairment. The study arranged for a controlled environment on a rented airport taxiway. Stopping distances were measured for an unimpaired driver to establish a baseline, and then compared to stopping distances for a legally drunk driver with a blood alcohol level of .08, a driver reading e-mail and a driver composing and sending a text message.
The focus was on measuring the driver’s reaction times when traveling at 35 mph and then at 70 mph. The results showed that drunk drivers were less impaired than those distracted with a hand-held phone. A sober driver responded quickly, taking only .54 seconds to brake. The legally drunk driver took an extra four feet to brake. The driver reading e-mail took an additional 36 feet to brake, and the driver sending a text message took a whopping seventy feet to brake. Studies like these have sent alarms across the country.
At this writing, 30 states and Washington D.C have banned texting while driving. Arizona has unsuccessfully tried to pass a statewide ban for the past two years, but legislators continue to put forth an effort to have an ordinance pass into law. Currently Phoenix is the only city in Arizona to pass an ordinance banning texting while driving, with violators receiving up to a $250 citation. Tragic accounts of injury and death as a result of distracted driving are recounted on the DOT’s website, www.distractio.gov.
On Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Sarah Edwards, 18, was driving down a rural two-lane road in her town of Chocowinity, N.C. The road was a short-cut to school. Eyewitness News 9 learned that Sarah was reading a text message when her 1988 Honda Accord drifted across the center line and into the path of a loaded logging truck. The driver of the truck told Sara’s family what had happened in the final seconds before the crash. Sara’s mother, Tracy O'Carroll, recalls the truck drivers chilling words, "She never looked up". Sarah had died on impact. Just 14 months earlier, North Carolina had made texting while driving a primary offense. And therein lies the problem with texting bans: They are difficult to enforce.
Despite efforts to reduce injury accidents by implementing a ban on texting, drivers continue to text anyway. As long as texting laws continue to be ignored, thousands will continue to suffer injuries and loss of life.
A study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in 2010 revealed that accidents had not declined in four states after texting bans were passed.
"You can pass all the laws you want, but if they're not enforced, they're not really good laws," said Ray LaHood, Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation.
Accidents caused by distracted driving are not limited to private citizens.
The incidence of cell-phone related accidents among federal and company fleet drivers is a costly concern. Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) drivers and private citizens are basically driving blind when engaged in texting behind the wheel.
With each text, drivers take their eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. “At 55 mph (or 80.7 feet per second), this equates to a driver traveling 371 feet, the approximate length of a football field, including the end zones, without looking at the roadway. At 65 mph (or 95.3 feet per second), the driver would have traveled approximately 439 feet without looking at the roadway,” reports the DOT. The ongoing acts of composing, sending and reading text messages repeatedly incurs even greater risks. As more and more data becomes available, more and more federal and private agencies are passing a ban on texting while driving.
In September 2010, the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS) and DOT announced that almost 1,600 U.S. companies and organizations had adopted distracted driving policies, covering approximately 10.5 million workers nationwide. Federal employees are already prohibited from texting while driving, and the DOT banned commercial drivers from texting while driving as well.
While passing ordinances is admirable, there is more to be done. An emphasis on law enforcement and an increase in public awareness campaigns has proven to be an effective strategy in the efforts to changing driver behavior.
High-visibility police enforcement and public awareness campaigns were tested in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut. Half-way thought the campaign, “Hartford had a 56 percent drop in handheld cell-phone use and texting declined 68 percent. In Syracuse, handheld use was down 38 percent and texting was down 42 percent,” said the DOT.
"We know there is a dramatic change in behavior when somebody gets a ticket, when a law is enforced," LaHood says.
Robbin Cabelus, Connecticut's Transportation Planning Director said that the combination of media campaigns and increased enforcement continues to be effective. The initial increase in law enforcement’s attention toward catching violators took offenders by surprise. Many offenders claimed that they didn't think they would get caught. Law enforcement’s commitment to enforcing the no texting law soon became widely reported.
Making people aware of the problem through public awareness campaigns was also an effective part of their strategy. “Sixty-six percent of respondents who reduced or stopped such behaviors said they did so because of reading or hearing about the dangers. Twenty percent said they were influenced by media campaigns,” the study concluded.
The DOT’s campaign to raise awareness and heighten law enforcement were key to reducing distracted driving related accidents and changing driver behavior and attitudes in Hartford and Syracuse. This is good news for other communities struggling to promote change. But everything really boils down to individual conduct.
Both Ashley Davis-Jones and Sarah Edwards are dead, as are thousands more who have lost their lives while texting. The parents and friends ask others to help them spread their message that no text is worth a life.