Distracted Driving
Original Air Date: 6/17/2010
Hopping in the car and driving here and there has become so commonplace that we forget the sheer weight and power of the machine wrapped around us. In the past four years in Washington, 801 people were killed by distracted driving. That’s nearly four deaths every week. Within this context Washington now tickets drivers who are texting or holding a cell phone to their ear, it's a primary offense. But wait—there are exceptions! What does the law actually say? That’s our topic next, on Northwest Now.
Guests
Angie Ward - Washington State Traffic Safety CommissionAngie Ward has worked for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission for 17 years. During that time she has managed the seat belt and DUI programs, and is now responsible the young driver, distracted driver, and corridor programs. She is a Washington native and grew up on a strawberry farm in Olympia.
To learn more about the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission, please visit: http://www.wtsc.wa.gov/
Trooper Guy Gill - Washington State Patrol He been a State Trooper for nine years. Trooper Gill is a Public Information Officer (PIO) for Pierce and Thurston counties and is responsible for traffic enforcement duties as well as collision investigation.
To learn more about the Washington State Patrol, please visit: http://www.wsp.wa.gov/
More Information
Quick facts about cell phone use while driving
- 6,000 people — equal to every citizen of the Pierce County city of Steilacoom — were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2008; 500,000 were injured.
- A driver talking on a cell phone is as impaired as a driver with a .08 blood-alcohol level.
- A driver who is texting is as impaired as a driver with a .16 blood-alcohol level. That’s double the legal limit.
- Drivers talking on cell phones are half a second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies and miss more than half the visual cues seen by attentive drivers.
- A driver talking on a cell phone is as impaired as a driver with a .08 blood-alcohol level.
- A driver who is texting is as impaired as a driver with a .16 blood-alcohol level. That’s double the legal limit.
- Drivers talking on cell phones are half a second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies and miss more than half the visual cues seen by attentive drivers.
About Washington’s new hands-free law
Since 2007, if police pulled you over for a traffic infraction, they also could ticket you if you were holding your cell phone and talking. Now, talking on your cell phone could be the violation that gets you pulled over to begin with — and law enforcement across Washington will be on the lookout.
Starting June 10, talking or sending text messages while holding a wireless device will carry a $124 fine. Legislation passed during the 2010 legislative session changed the current cell phone law into a primary traffic offense. That means if police see you holding your phone, they can pull you over and ticket you. Drivers must use hands-free devices. And new drivers with instruction permits or intermediate licenses aren’t permitted to use wireless devices at all, except in emergencies, as with all other drivers.
To learn more about the new cell phone law, read some FAQs and visit: http://www.dol.wa.gov/driverslicense/distracteddriving.html
To view the final bill, visit: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.667
Parents: Responsibility starts at home
Are you a parent that purchased your teen a cell phone when they entered middle school for “safety” reasons? Well the fact is, now that device is one of the most dangerous things they can have as they turn 16 and get behind the wheel of a car. Talk to your children about the life-changing effects distracted driving can have and set clear expectations that when they’re driving, they’re not playing with a cell phone. The call or text can wait.
Eyes off the road can change lives forever. Intermediate license holders can’t use any wireless device — with or without a hands-free device — while operating a vehicle unless they’re reporting an emergency.
Washington’s new cell phone law takes effect this summer
If you’re driving on the freeway, you can travel more than the length of a football field in the time it takes to read a short text message.
For the past few years, if police pulled you over for a traffic infraction, they also could ticket you if you were holding your cell phone and talking. Now, talking on your cell phone could be the violation that gets you pulled over to begin with.
Starting on June 10, 2010, talking or sending text messages while holding a wireless device will carry a $124 fine, after legislation signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire that changes the current cell phone law into a primary traffic offense.
Since 2007, holding a cell phone while operating a moving vehicle has been a secondary offense, meaning that officers could only ticket drivers pulled over for another violation. The new law adds hands-on cell phone use as a violation that officers can treat as a primary offense.
What Is Distracted Driving?
There are three main types of distraction:
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Visual — taking your eyes off the road
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Manual — taking you hands of the wheel
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Cognitive — taking your mind off what you’re doing
Distracted driving is any non-driving activity a person engages in that has the potential to distract him or her from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing.
While all distractions can endanger drivers’ safety, texting is the most alarming because it involves all three types of distraction.
Other distracting activities include:
- Using a cell phone
- Eating and drinking
- Talking to passengers
- Grooming
- Reading, including maps
- Using a PDA or navigation system
- Watching a video
- Changing the radio station, CD, or Mp3 player
There are other less obvious forms of distractions including daydreaming or dealing with strong emotions.
While these numbers are significant, they may not state the true size of the problem, since the identification of distraction and its role in a crash can be very difficult to determine using only police-reported data. New data sources are available to provide more details on the type and presence of driver distraction
Using mobile devices while driving
The percentage of young drivers texting or using other hand-held electronic devices has increased from 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s 2008 nationwide survey, which provides the only nationwide probability-based observed data on driver electronic device use in the United States. The survey shows that the hand-held cell phone use rate in 2008 translates into 812,000 vehicles being driven by someone using a hand-held cell phone at any given moment during daylight hours. It also translates into an estimated 11 percent of all vehicles that had drivers who were using some type of phone (hand-held or hands-free).
Highlights- 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%).
Read a Distracted Driving Fact Sheet at: http://www.wtsc.wa.gov/programs-priorities/distracted-driving/ For more links about distracted driving, visit:
Talk Text Ticket
Driven to Distraction Task Force of Washington State
Washington State Traffic Safety Commission
Washington State Department of Licensing
The National Safety Council No Phone Zone
