Following is a paper I wrote on the need to change a current Missouri law on texting and driving for ENG325, Intermediate Composition:
Driving while distracted has become a huge problem resulting in many accidents. On August 28, 2009, a law prohibiting drivers 21 years of age or younger from sending, reading, or writing an electronic message while driving in Missouri was enacted. This law should to be amended to include Missouri drivers of all ages. This is a nationwide issue and the lawmakers of Missouri need to take a proactive, hard stance on an issue that the current law only partially supports.
Today, cell phones and texting are what the technology of the Citizens’ Band (CB) radio was to the 1970s. The CB radio has very limited functionality - you have frequency choices and a push to talk button. I can recall my parents having a CB radio, but it was not a driving distraction for my dad; he used the truckers chatter to keep abreast of speed traps and construction zones while we were traveling on vacation. The cell phone is probably the most popular innovation in travel that has nothing to do functionality of the vehicle that gets you to your destination. It is our need for constant, instantaneous communication coupled with the ability to do this while driving that is causing an increase in traffic crashes nationwide.
“Missouri is the 23rd state to ban texting while driving, but is one of only nine states to single out a particular age group. The fine for texting while driving under Missouri's new law is $200 (Now it’s Illegal to Txt & Drv, 2009). Our neighboring state, Illinois, had a new law go in effect on January 1, 2010. Their law, which includes ALL drivers makes it not only illegal to “use a cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or portable computer to compose, send or read a message or access the Internet while driving but also prohibits the use of cell phones entirely within a school speed zone, construction zone or if the driver is under the age of 19 years” (http://www.dot.il.gov/texting.asp).
The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) defines distracted driving as “any non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving.” They categorize distractions as follows: Visual (eyes), Manual (hands), and Cognitive (mind). Texting involves all three of these distractions. (http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/). Missouri’s law is a small step in counteracting some of the distracted driving taking place on our roadways. These distractions apply to everyone so every driver should be prohibited from texting and driving.
The statistics are alarming on distracted driving. According to Traffic Safety Facts from the NHTSA (http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/):
· In 2008, slightly more than almost 20 percent of all crashes in the year involved some type of distraction. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - NHTSA).
· Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted driver, and more than half a million were injured. (NHTSA)
· The younger, inexperienced drivers under 20 years old have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes.
· Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
· Using a cell phone use while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)
A 2008 survey for usage of electronic devices while driving by the NHTSA indicated an increase in usage of these devices. The results were gathered by trained individuals at randomly selected roadways (which had either stop signs or stoplights) during set days and times so the behavior of the occupants of the vehicle could readily be observed (http://www.distraction.gov/stats-and-facts/#what). The survey results comparing 2007 to 2008 are as follows:
· Nationwide, those drivers observed visibly manipulating hand-held electronic devices increased from 0.7 percent to 1.0 percent.
· Some 1.7 percent of drivers 16 to 24 years old were observed visibly manipulating hand-held electronic devices, up from 1.0 percent the previous year.
· More drivers in Western States were observed manipulating hand-held electronic devices (2.1%) than in the other regions of the country (from 0.4% in the Northeast to 0.8% in the Midwest).
· The use of hand-held devices increased the most in the West, from 0.6 percent in 2007 to 2.1 percent in 2008.
· The observed use rate of hand-held electronic devices was higher among females (1.2%) than among males (0.8%).
According studies by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, distracted driving is the leading cause of traffic crashes – 80 percent are caused by some form of distracted driving. Half of all teens admit texting while driving. Drivers that are texting spend up to 400 percent more time with their eyes off the road. The study showed that drivers who text have their eyes off the road the longest – an average of 4.6 seconds equaling driving the length of a football field at 55 mph. Although talking on a cell phone while driving allows you to keep your eyes on the road there still is some distraction risk associated but not to the same degree (Box, 2009).
The efforts to curb teenage drinking and driving have proved to be successful only to keep the statistics up with fatalities from distracted driving which includes texting while driving. “Distracted driving is the number one killer of American teens. Alcohol-related accidents among teens have dropped. Teenage traffic fatalities have remained unchanged, because distracted driving is on the rise. While over 90% of teen drivers say they don't drink and drive, nine out of 10 say they've seen passengers distracting the driver, or drivers using cell phones (http://negligentdriving.org/distracted.cfm).
No matter what your age, you are at risk of being in a crash from any type of cell phone use while driving. Below (Figure 1) is the risk of crash results as studied by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (Box, 2009):
| CELL PHONE TASK | Risk of Crash or Near Crash event |
| Light Vehicle/Cars | |
| Dialing Cell Phone | 2.8 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
| Talking/Listening to Cell Phone | 1.3 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
| Reaching for object (i.e. electronic device and other) | 1.4 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
| Heavy Vehicles/Trucks | |
| Dialing Cell phone | 5.9 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
| Talking/Listening to Cell Phone | 1.0 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
| Use/Reach for electronic device | 6.7 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
| Text messaging | 23.2 times as high as non‐distracted driving |
Figure 1: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Texting is not only used for personal communication; many business transactions take place on the road because of the innovative technology a cell phone offers. Business becomes dangerous when it is conducted electronically while driving. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order banning Federal government employees from texting while driving while conducting government business. This texting ban includes any government issued cell phone as well as their personal cell phone while driving a government vehicle or their own personal vehicle.
With so much time spent in our vehicles, driving while texting is a temptation for multitasking. “American employees report an average commute from home to work of 23 minutes, with average times higher in most of the country's largest metro areas. About one in five U.S. workers (19%) spends more than half an hour getting to work, and 3% commute for more than an hour each way” (Crabtree, 2010). According to calculations of miles driven per year from the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (Figure 2), Americans as a whole spend much time in their vehicles (http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm).
Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group
| Age | Male | Female | Total |
| 16-19 | 8,206 | 6,873 | 7,624 |
| 20-34 | 17,976 | 12,004 | 15,098 |
| 35-54 | 18,858 | 11,464 | 15,291 |
| 55-64 | 15,859 | 7,780 | 11,972 |
| 65+ | 10,304 | 4,785 | 7,646 |
| Average | 16,550 | 10,142 | 13,476 |
Figure 2, United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration
In April 2010, a 30 year old Illinois state trooper pleaded guilty to a plea deal for felony charges of killing two sisters. At the time of the accident, the trooper was driving 126 miles an hour responding to an emergency call while talking on his cell phone and sending email. In his plea bargain he will not spend any time behind bars yet a family and community will grieve the senseless loss of those sisters forever (Illinois state trooper who killed two sisters pleads guilty, 2010).
A 50 year old truck driver received a one year sentence in a guilty plea for three counts of involuntary manslaughter after being distracted by his cell phone and slammed into stopped traffic in July of 2008. In addition to three people killed, twelve were injured in this 11-car rush hour wreck (Mason, 2010).
It’s just not automobiles where these preventable tragedies occur. A California commuter train engineer’s inattention caused the worst train accident since 1993 killing 25 people and injuring 135. The 46 year old engineer, whose life was also lost, was texting just before the time of the crash, failed to heed signals and collided head-on with a freight train (Chatterjee, 2008).
How many more horrific accidents need to occur before people wake up and realize that driving while texting, or any other distraction, has claimed too many lives? The three examples I have given were not caused by the inattention of teenage drivers. All of these drivers in these horrific crashes are adults. It should not matter the age, driving while texting is an extremely dangerous activity and should not be legal for anyone of any age in Missouri or elsewhere.
Texting is considered to be the most dangerous of the distracted driving activities. Legislative activity in 2010 has focused on several proposals that would ban texting while driving nationwide. States could lose billions of dollars in highway funding if they do not comply. Thirty states have banned texting while driving as of July 2010. The debate still continues over cell phone usage in general while driving but legislators at state levels have pushed the texting bills through (http://handsfreeinfo.com/). Although I believe that state of Missouri should amend the law that was just put into effect, a stronger stance would be a nationwide ban on texting while driving. There is strength in numbers and people should be safe from this behavior in all states.
Passing laws is only part of the solution and I am not completely sold on the loss of highway funding for non-compliance. If the economy was in a different state, I would feel differently. Right now we need to make highway funding available to put Americans back to work. A grace period of some sort to give the economy time to recover before halting highway funding would be more appropriate.
Driving while texting laws may be too specific and enforcement of these laws is difficult to enforce. People use their cell phones for much more than texting – dialing a number, talking, checking the time, viewing a website, watching a movie, looking at a map – these things are all legal unless there is a strict ban on all cell phone usage by the driver. From an officer’s perspective, it would be difficult to assume someone is breaking the law when in fact the person may be doing something completely legal. Cell phone records can only be subpoenaed if there is a criminal investigation involved. Some state do have bans on cell phone usage while driving unless you talking on a hands-free device.
I have read about devices that disable a cell phone while a car is in motion. I do not see these as being very useful. In fact, I would be very annoyed if I was a passenger who wanted to send a text or use the Internet function and this device, intended for the driver, was disabling my phone as well. Tech savvy teens would have disabling of this device figured out in a heartbeat.
Arguments may be made that texting while driving is a right. Driving is not a right, it is a privilege. Texting while driving is also a privilege which should not be exercised. Texting might seem harmless - it may be inconvenient to wait until your vehicle is stopped - but texting while driving can be as dangerous as driving with blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08% percent according to a study at the University of Utah (http://safety.transportation.org/stories.aspx?cid=2&sid=981). Some states are considering bills that would have the same penalties for cell phone users involved in a fatal accident as they do for drunk drivers.
Laws and law enforcement can only do so much. I believe the best defense we have is education and awareness of the dangers. Education of the issue will eventually get people to modify their behavior. There are many, many forms of distracted driving – eating, pets in the vehicle, reading, putting on makeup – but a cell phone is an item that the vast majority of people now have. Look around you at the number of people now wearing seatbelts. It took a law coupled with public education to increase awareness to get people to comply. Seatbelt laws along with education and public awareness efforts have saved lives. Behavior modification, personal accountability, and parents setting the example for their children are needed – laws and law enforcement can only do so much.
The Missouri Highway Patrol has begun a public education and awareness campaign to eliminate texting while driving. Electronic and stationary billboards alongside the highway deliver messages alerting drivers not to text and drive. In an effort to end distracted driving from cell phone usage, news channel 5 (KSDK) in St. Louis has a Hang up and Drive pledge. People that take the pledge are eligible for a several drawings, one of which is a new car. Oprah Winfrey also has a no texting campaign and is doing her part in educating and promoting public awareness.
It may take a grassroots effort, much like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), to bring this to the level of public awareness it needs. Not everyone drinks and drives but the majority of people have a cell phone with them at all times. When you get behind the wheel, think twice before letting your cell phone be the distraction that could change your life in an instant. The lawmakers and the people of Missouri need to revisit the texting law put in place in 2009; driving while texting is not safe for anyone.
References
Box, S. (2009). New Data from VTTI Provides Insight into Cell Phone Use and Driving Distraction. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Retrieved August 17, 2010 from www.vtti.vt.edu/.../7-22-09-VTTI-Press_Release_Cell_phones_and_Driver_
Distraction.pdf.
Distraction.pdf.
Chatterjee, S. (October 2008). Train engineer was texting just before California crash. Retrieved August 19, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0152835520081002.
Crabtree, S. (August, 13, 2010). Wellbeing Lower Among Workers With Long Commutes. Retrieved August 29 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/142142/wellbeing-lower-among-workers-long-commutes.aspx
Illinois state trooper who killed two sisters pleads guilty. (April, 2010). Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Illinois-state-trooper-who-killed-two-sisters-pleads-guilty-91065499.html.
Mason, J. (April 2010). Truck driver responsible for fatal wreck on I-64 released. Retrieved August 19, 2010 from http://www.kmov.com/news/just-posted/Driver-responsible-for-fatal-2008-wreck-released-91062124.html.
Now it’s Illegal to Txt & Drv. (August 26, 2009). Retrieved on August 17, 2010 from http://www.modot.mo.gov/newsandinfo/District0News.shtml?action=displaySSI&newsId=37299.
