Distracted Driving – The Phone is Smart; The Driver, Not So Much

Instead of answering a question this week, I’m going to let you in on a bit of information that could save you $124, or even (not to be too dramatic) your life. During the first two weeks of April, local law enforcement are participating in a national distracted driving enforcement campaign. That means extra cops on the road, looking specifically for distracted drivers. You’re welcome.

Nearly a decade ago Washington adopted our cell phone law, and I’ll admit, at the time I wasn’t fully supportive. Not because I didn’t think cell phones were a distraction, but because I though it would diminish the perception that many other activities drivers engage in are also distractions. Since then I’ve changed my view. I’m not dismissing other distractions; it’s just that phones create a uniquely high level of distraction. This isn’t my personal view; it’s supported by crash data. But, before we look at the numbers, let’s consider the types of driving distractions:

• Manual distraction – Things that take your hands off the wheel. This includes putting on makeup, shaving, changing clothes, dialing a phone number, steering with your knees while unwrapping a cheeseburger you just got from the drive-through window.
• Visual distraction – Things that take your eyes off the road, like reading a text or watching things outside not related to driving. Have you noticed that when there is a serious crash on a busy freeway, there is often a minor crash in the opposing direction? That’s a distracted driving crash. It seems like seeing a crash should remind us to pay more attention, but it often has the opposite result.
• Cognitive distraction – Things that take your mind off of driving. A lot of things fall into this category; daydreaming, mentally reviewing a shopping list, formulating a response to a text, telling your son not to put his gum in his sister’s hair.

All kinds of activities can taker our minds away from driving, but you can see why cell phone use increases crash risk more than other distractions; it involves all three types of distraction. Consider, this: Our cell phone law was passed before the iPhone was even available. Cell phones were already becoming a traffic safety problem when the only thing we could do with them was talk and text, and we paid by-the-minute and per-text. Now we can send email, check stock prices, watch Youtube, play Candy Crush. (Curse you Candy Crush for stealing so many hours of sleep.) And most of us have nearly unlimited data plans to do it with. That level of distraction and availability has had deadly results on our roads.

For drivers who are distracted by things besides phones, the cell phone law is not the only available enforcement tool. A distracted driver that “endangers or is likely to endanger any person or property” could be charged with Negligent Driving. There is also a little-known law prohibiting embracing while driving.

Distracted driving crash data is gathered from police reports, which means that when a driver admits to a type of distraction at the scene of a crash, the officer documents it. As you can imagine, this method likely under-represents the frequency and seriousness of distracted driving. Also, drivers may admit to not paying attention without specifying what caused the distraction, so the results are inclined to show a disproportionate number of generally distracted drivers. An insurance company study reviewed these reports and found that cell phone use resulted in nearly double the fatal crashes of the next specific distraction on the list, visual distractions outside the car.

You might be asking, “But really, how serious of a problem is distracted driving? Is it worth putting extra resources into enforcing distracted driving laws instead of something more serious, like impaired driving?” I’m glad you brought that up. First of all, distracted driving patrols don’t replace impaired driving enforcement. Locally and statewide, most of our emphasis patrol resources go to impaired driving. And with good reason; impaired drivers are responsible for about half of the traffic fatalities in the state. While we’re on the topic of impaired driving, allow me to make a link back to distracted driving. A group of researchers found that using a phone while driving presented a risk comparable to driving with a .08 blood alcohol level. In our region, the four most northwest counties in Washington, distracted driving was a contributing factor in 32% of the fatalities and 29% of the serious injuries in traffic crashes in 2014.

Brain scientists have found that the primitive part of our brain compels us to respond to our phones, even when driving. It’s time for us to evolve beyond being controlled by our digital devices and use our higher reasoning to leave the phone alone when driving. As the campaign slogan goes, “If you’re texting, you’re not driving.” Putting the phone down keeps us safer, and with emphasis patrols going on now, it can save $124. Be kind and drive wise.