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Most people think of impaired drivers as being the most dangerous on the highway, but according to Louisiana State Police Troop C Public Information Officer Evan Harrell, they are not always the most deadly drivers.
“Distracted drivers can be even more dangerous than impaired drivers,” he said. “Drivers who are texting or playing with their phones are taking their eyes off the road. We get calls about people swerving in and out of lanes. When we respond to the call and get behind the vehicle, the driver is no longer swerving. They were texting and driving.”
According to Harrell, the problem is widespread.
“Nationally, drivers under 20 years of age have the highest number of distraction related fatalities,” he said, citing statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “So far this year, NTHSA has documented 307,753 accidents caused by texting and driving.”
But those figures may not reveal how bad the problem really is, Harrell said.
“The numbers are off because not everyone will admit to it. Distracted driving is hard to prove,” the trooper said. “Drivers who are distracted usually don’t want to tell you the truth when they cause a crash because they were usually paying attention to something besides the road. Most of the drivers younger than 20 years old will usually admit to texting or being on social web sites, though.”
Figures from the 2011 Louisiana Crash Data Reports indicate Terrebone Parish leads the Tri-parish region in crashes caused by distracted drivers. Of the 4,800 distraction-related crashes, 36 results in fatalities and more than 2,100 in injuries.
Lafourche Parish drivers rank second with 3,146 distracted-driving crashes. Thirty-six resulted in fatalities and more than 1,300 in injuries.
St. Mary fared slightly better with only 1,408 distraction-related crashes, 16 of which resulted in fatalities and 754 in injuries.
The state Crash Data Reports details what interferred with driver’s attention: cell phones, other electronic devices or distractions inside or outside of the vehicle.
Cell phone use was commonly reported among young drivers. Terrebonne reported cell phone use in 63 of the crashes; Lafourche, 38; and St. Mary in 14.
“I just spoke to the South Lafourche High School drivers’ education class and this was something I discussed with the class,” Harrell said. “Anytime we speak at a school, we always include distracted driving in the topics we cover. These are young, inexperienced drivers and a lot of them are texting and driving.”
Harrell urges drivers to pull off the road before texting.
“There is supposed to be a new phone application coming out that uses a GPS to sense if your vehicle is going more than 4 mph. If someone texts or calls you, your phone will not ring or chime and will send the caller a message that you are driving and will call them back when you arrive at your destination,” the trooper said. “It’s good that your phone doesn’t even ring. Some people won’t read the whole text but at least want to see who it is. That split second [glancing at the phone] could make the difference between wrecking and not wrecking.”
Cell phone dangers aren’t limited to texting, either, Harrell warns.
“It’s not just texting, but talking on the phone,” he said. “Depending on how in-depth your conversation, 80 percent of your attention is off the road when talking on the phone. We have pulled people over who have been on the phone and, when we ask where they have been or what they have seen, they can’t recall because they were focused on their conversation.”
Technology within the vehicle also vies for drivers’ attention.
“Now, we’ve got things like touch-screen navigation and other gizmos inside vehicles to distract drivers,” Harrell said. “People are also distracted by things outside their vehicles by things like wrecks or cops pulling someone else over.
“I was working an accident once and another driver was looking at the wreck and hit another vehicle without even slowing down,” he said. “It happened about 10 feet from me.”
Louisiana State Trooper Joey Schouest radars vehicles near La. Highway 90.
