Loyola Chicago’s Financial Aid Office lists Outside Scholarship opportunities on our website. One of our current students is applying for the Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. Law School Scholarship Essay Contest, which required her to write the essay below.
With Some Reinforcement, Distracted Driving Campaigns Are Making Headway
By Tracy Gibbons
The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the phrase “distracted driving” is texting while driving. According to the U.S. Department of Transportations’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), texting takes your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds and creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted. But distracted driving comes in other forms too, such as talking, eating, reading, and even personal grooming. The NHTSA defines distracted driving as any activity that could divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving. In fact, there are three types of distracted driving:
- Manual – taking your hands off the wheel;
- Visual – taking your eyes off the road; and
- Cognitive – taking your mind off driving.
Personally, I’ve seen people behind the wheel trying to eat with two hands, apply makeup using the rearview mirror, and listening to music or phone calls with earbuds in both ears. I’ve heard stories about people shaving while driving, answering e-mails on their laptops, and searching for a missing item in the backseat of the car. And emerging dashboard technology — screens dubbed “infotainment systems” — will allow drivers to view high-definition TV, maps and websites, promising trouble ahead.
In an effort to curtail dangerous texting-and-driving habits, the NHTSA partnered with popular teen television show “Glee” in a “Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks.” campaign. In order to personalize the problem, the NHTSA website also features a “Faces of Distracted Driving” video campaign, featuring video memorials of individuals who have been killed by distracted driving. Other campaigns include titles such as “Don’t Text and Drive” and “Talk. Text. Crash.” Currently, 39 states and Washington, D.C. have laws banning texting while driving, and 10 states prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving.
However, in a 2010 article entitled “Distracted-driving campaign requires attitude adjustment,” USA Today noted that enforcing these new laws is difficult because so much texting goes on at “lap level.” Relatively light fines won’t necessarily overcome the irresistible temptation some drivers feel to answer a text message. The article noted that “experience with other highway safety issues, such as drunken driving and seat-belt use, suggests it takes a combination of laws, enforcement, and education to change attitudes and reduce the carnage.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation is doing exactly that. On June 7, 2012, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood unveiled a “Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving,” a plan to reduce the number of distracted driving-related accidents and fatalities. Specifically, the plan’s goals are to:
- Encourage the remaining 11 states without distracted driving laws to enact and enforce this critical legislation;
- Challenge the auto industry to adopt new and future guidelines for technology to reduce the potential for distraction on devices built or brought into vehicles;
- Partner with driver education professionals to incorporate new curriculum materials to educate novice drivers of driver distraction and its consequences. Data from the NHTSA show drivers under the age of 25 are two to three times more likely than older drivers to send text messages or emails while driving; and
- Provide all stakeholders with actions they can take that go beyond personal responsibility to helping end distracted driving nationwide. (DOT 64-12).
Secretary LaHood simultaneously announced $2.4 million in federal support for Delaware and the Sacramento valley region of California that will expand the Department’s “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” pilot enforcement campaign to reduce distracted driving. Modeled after similar programs such as the “Click It or Ticket” campaign, the new program will examine whether increased police enforcement coupled with paid media and news media coverage can significantly reduce distracted driving over a widespread area. The program will test large-scale implementation of the approach used in smaller demonstration projects commenced in April 2010 and completed in 2011 in Hartford, Connecticut, and Syracuse, New York. The smaller pilot program, which was supported by $200,000 in federal funds and $100,000 in state, found dramatic declines in distracted driving in the two communities tested – with texting dropping 72 percent in Hartford and 32 percent in Syracuse.
The “Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other” “waves of enforcement” lasting 2-3 weeks at a time began in November 2012, with second and third waves throughout winter and spring in 2013. The California Office of Traffic Safety announced that distracted drivers talking on a hand-held cell phone or texting would receive a first-time ticket costing a minimum of $159, with a second offense costing $279. The office stressed that the goal of the special enforcement operation is not to issue tickets, but to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. If the results of the new program combination of enforcement and education show improvement in the numbers of distracted driving-related accidents, we can expect to see this campaign implemented on a national scale.
For more information or for assistance related to distracted driving accidents, visit http://www.SalviLaw.com.
Sources:
“Delaware Is Cracking Down on Distracted Driving Phone in One Hand. Ticket in the Other. Enforcement Campaign Begins November 7th.” State of Delaware Office of Highway Safety News Release. Nov. 5, 2012.
Distract, Official US Government Website for Distracted Driving.
“Distracted-driving campaign requires attitude adjustment.” USA Today. Jan. 26, 2010.
“Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other.” California Office of Traffic Safety.
“U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood Issues ‘Blueprint for Ending Distracted Driving,’ Announces $2.4 Million for California, Delaware Pilot Projects: Comprehensive strategy to address “distraction epidemic” outlines steps to pass more laws, address technology, and help stakeholders take action.” U.S. Department of Transportation Press Release. DOT 64-12. June 7, 2012.