This morning I ran over three children while talking and texting on my cell phone. Sure they were metaphorical children represented by green traffic cones on a closed driving track, but I felt a little bad nonetheless.
Federal Way Sen. Tracey Eide (D-30) and Northwest Seattle Rep. Rueven Carlyle (D-36) held a press event in the Qwest field parking lot to promote their anti-texting while driving senate and house bills. The legislation would make it a primary offense to hand hold a cell phone for talking or texting while driving (meaning it’s punishable in its own right without being connected to another crime, like speeding). The event was cosponsored by the Driven to Distraction Task Force and the Swerve driving school who set up a driving obstacle course in the parking lot to simulate distracted driving.
Sen. Eide was the main sponsor of the 2008 bill that made it a secondary offense to use a cell phone without a hands-free device while driving. That means it’s currently illegal to hold a phone to talk while driving in Washington, but the police cannot pull you over for it. If you were pulled over for speeding or running a light while talking on the phone you could receive an additional ticket. (The new rules would also ban teen drivers with an intermediate driver’s license from using cell phones at all.) The standard fine would be $124 or as much as $550 for a distracted motorist who caused a collision.
In her opening remarks, Sen. Eide outlined some of the statistics motivating her to revamp the cell phone ban. According to her, driving while talking on a cell phone is equivalent to driving with a .08 blood alcohol level, the legal limit. Texting while driving is equivalent to twice the legal limit. If a person looked down for five seconds to text while driving at highway speed they would travel the same distances as 1.5 football fields.
Rep. Carlyle gave a nod to potential detractors who will say this just a government power grab. “I had reservations about the overreach of government, but the data is too compelling not to do something.” A hand out from the “Driven to Distraction Task Force” cited a Harvard Center for Risk Analysis study that “cell phone distraction accounts for at least 2,600 deaths and 636,000 cashes every year in the US.”
After the opening remarks, the driving course was open for attendants to attempt. It consisted of 10 or so cones to slalom around, a row of cones that simulated lane changing, and a big cluster of cones to swerve around that were stand-ins for the random obstacles you find in the road. Too make things tougher there was a traffic light that flashed to tell you to skip certain cones.
The four little Scions got grabbed up right away so I ended up in one of Swerve’s gigantic work trucks, a Toyota Tacoma I’m pretty sure. Former professional race car driver Dominic Dobson, now Chief Advancement Officer of the LeMay car museum was in attendance to support the legislation, and he hopped into the passenger seat of the truck to ride along. Given that I mostly ride a bike around the city, and occasionally drive a little Jetta, driving the course in a huge truck seemed tough as hell without the distractions of a cell phone.
I took three laps around the course. First with both hands on the wheel (no casualties), then while talking on the phone, then while trying to send a text. I took the course pretty slow, but I still knocked down a handful of the cone children on those runs. It was damn near impossible to type out a text while swerving around cones, and I didn’t even see the flashing traffic light on my second two laps around the course.
Dobson and I switched places after my third lap. Shocking as it may be, he is a way better driver and took the course going at least twice the speed I had. But despite the fact that he made his career racing cars, he still hit a cone or two when he was on the phone and texting.
To be fair, nobody is going to be cruising through a slalom course on their daily drive, but the exercise still effectively illustrated the stark contrast between driving with your full attention on the road and driving with the distractions of a cell phone.
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Fun story! I made a vow sometime last year to treat texting while driving exactly like drinking… just no way in hell is it ok. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I only did this after having two near-accidents, giving me a first-hand look at how dangerous it is. Yikes.
Anyway, I’m glad they’re working on this law.
Good story — but I think the first sentence is a mistake… where it says you ran over two children. That really takes the reader on an unnecessary head trip, if the reader is anything like me.
Fax: (866) 701-3787 Based on Ashlei’s comment below furthers my argument, that banning is only 1 part of the solution. We must provide a solid alternative, that will satisfy our need to communicate at any given moment. Let’s just do it responsibly.
“I don’t think it’ll stop people from texting,” said Ashlei Smith, of Bourbonnais. Smith could say this in earnest
because she had a car crash in May while texting, but stated that she does not plan to curb her texting.
Can you help spread the word—
I see tons of sites talking about the problem, but I have not see any offering solutions other than banning. We know that instituting bans will have some effect, but I say let’s provide an alternative. So lets use technology to combat technology… check out this youtube video http://bit.ly/fdivoice or visit http://www.fdi-hands-free.com
And then, there’s this:
i’ve been talking on cell phones and driving for a decade now, and have never been in an accident.
you know what causes accidents? idiot washington natives that don’t know how to drive, especially in any kind of precipitation.
nationally, alcohol related fatalaties result in six times as many people as distracted cell phone users – will they be pushing for a ban of alcohol?
since eide and carlyle are apparently soooo pro-statistics, will the be hoppin on the pot-legalization bills as well?
As a pedestrian I’ve been almost hit many times by drivers downtown who are staring straight ahead, on their cell phones, turning right into the crosswalk. “Precipitation” wasn’t a factor; inattention was. As a driver, I’ve also had near-accidents by being cut off by drivers on their cell phones. A car’s a weapon; why on earth would you think you don’t need to pay full attention when using it? We don’t need a technological alternative — just put the damn phone down and drive!
I think this legislation is a great idea and much needed.
Yes attempting to text while slaloming around children is a pretty dangerous thing to do.
However it is the latter that is the real dangerous part there.
Like fiddling with the radio, talking on a phone is not something you should do when a high level of attention is required. There is a difference between a test like this and say driving on the freeway in the same lane.
If phones and the like where the huge menace people think then accidents would be going up, not down.
Oregon’s law went into effect on January 1, 2010, banning all but the hands free devices while driving. As usual we have to look to our friends to the south to keep up. Cell phone driving is the province of barbarians, cattle husslers, neo-McCarthyites, and big-boned bird-brained bimbos.
@5
They already do. It’s called Drinking and Driving, and it’s illegal.
Giffy @8, thanks for mentioning the obvious. Yes, I phone and drive, but never in the type of traffic represesented by this slalom test. When faced with that situation (maneuvering around downtown Seattle pavement projects, for example), I put the phone down and drive. When I’m on the freeway, in a lightly-traveled lane on cruise control, I can phone and drive safely.
Hey folks:
one day, you might get into an accident. You may be on trial for your alleged fault. The injured person’s lawyer is going to get your cell phone and texting records. If you were on the phone or testing when the collision happened, you’re basically a dead duck, liability wise. IF you were even on the phone/texting recently a few minutes before, this also enhances the risk you will be found liable. And you can’t get rid of this evidence, it’s over in the cell phone company….it can be subpoenaed….
Btw that little $300,000 limit on your insurance isn’t going to cover many claims, so the result could be you lose your house, yoru savings and get your payckeck garnished, etc.
So put down the device and in fact, turn it off. Enjoy your drive and stay alive.
How is it that you bike without fear of drivers distracted for lengthy periods of time talking on their phone who should instead be looking out for you? Isn’t a bike narrower and more vulnerable than a car? Don’t pedestrians at least have some safety on a sidewalk, whereas some bicyclists ride in the lanes?
I’d love to bike around the city but as a pedestrian I’ve seen too many entitled dimbulbs “driving drunk” to even dare fill out a Cascade Bicycle Club form.
You are is right.. a solutions is what is required rather than all this and technology is what helps us here… http://www.drivesafe.ly/ is an amazing peice of software which is proving to be an effective combat against the perils of texting while driving.