advertisement

Editorial: We don't have to put up with distracted driving

On Sunday, Transportation Writer Marni Pyke told you about our self-styled investigation of distracted driving.

Forty of us stood watch at intersections around the suburbs and in the course of an hour witnessed more than 1,000 examples of motorists overtly talking or texting on mobile phones. More than 1,000. In just one hour.

What's the most intriguing part of that report? That the findings are not surprising. The specific numbers may be news. But the fact of the epidemic is not. You know about it. You see it every day when you're on the road. We all see it.

And yet, it's still there. A thousand examples in one hour, and it's still there. It's like we've all thrown up our hands and decided there is nothing we can do.

It's still there, but it doesn't have to be. We can do something about it. We've battled addiction on the road before. As a society, we campaigned against drunken driving and did something about it. We didn't eliminate it, but we sharply reduced it.

The same is possible with distracted driving.

But as with drunken driving, it will not be stopped until it is no longer tolerated. It will not stop until there are consequences.

Some concrete suggestions:

1) A team of reporters positioned themselves at busy intersections and without sophisticated equipment, watched motorists flagrantly violate the law. If a team of reporters can do this, why can't teams of police officers? We challenge local communities to declare themselves Safe Driving Zones - to send police out on widely publicized distracted driving crackdowns the way they did to make "Click it, or ticket" a common expectation. It wasn't just a law that transformed the public's mindset on using seat belts; it was the heavy enforcement of that law.

2) Let's find ways to make inspection of electronic devices routine in the case of every traffic accident. At the very least, motorists involved in accidents should be quizzed about whether they'd been using a phone. But beyond that, we need to make it less cumbersome for police to gain permission to view the phone as evidence.

3) Let's increase the fine for a violation. One way to discourage use of mobile phones while driving is to make the penalty hurt if caught.

4) Let's eliminate the exception to the prohibition on hand-held cellphones that allows motorists stopped in a traffic jam to use their phones. Why do they need to? Exceptions reinforce an unfortunate belief that mobile phone use behind the week is safe.

We can stop distracted driving. But in order to do so, we've got to make stopping it a priority.

The law

Spot check show rampant texting, driving in suburbs

How we counted

Why hands-free driving isn't risk-free

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.