Distractions-YMIT-10-4-23

Distracted driving is a growing problem on the roads, with various distractions like texting, calling, and even putting on makeup diverting drivers' attention from the road. Different states have different laws regarding distracted driving, but it's generally best to avoid using cell phones while driving. State trooper Nathan has witnessed numerous instances of distracted driving, including people reading newspapers, playing Pokemon Go, and even watching cartoons while behind the wheel. These distractions can lead to dangerous situations and accidents. Nathan recommends defensive driving techniques, such as keeping a safe following distance and avoiding distracted drivers on the road. The following interview took place on October 4th, 2023, and is a copyrighted production of the Call Radio Communications Group. Are your devices driving you to distraction? Your moment of tech is next. Distraction, distractions, over more distractions, GPS, texting, EV notifications, and mobile calls, to name a few, are adding to the difficulties for safe traveling on the road today. Not only your distractions, but the other drivers who you share the road with. Nathan is a state trooper in a southern state with over nine years' experience. One of his patrols is along I-10. Nathan, what is the definition of distracted driving? So I took the legal definition, or basically what I observed as a legal definition through the state. Distracted driving is basically any activity done by a driver that takes his or her attention off the road, which can be anything from texting, calling, even arguing with a passenger because you're not paying attention to the road, listening to loud music because you can't hear what's going on around you, eating, or even putting on makeup. So in your state, what are the laws on distracted driving? So we have at least three laws that I can think of offhand. Two are pretty self-explanatory. The other one we used actually before the cell phone law came into effect. But the one we used before the cell phone law came into effect and kind of what we would use for situations where someone might be putting on makeup or just not looking at the roadway, maybe reading a newspaper or something. We have what's a speed law, but it's called speed not reasonable and prudent. Basically, if I were to go to court on that, it's basically just saying I would be telling the judge based on what the person was doing, if they were traveling at 65 miles per hour, that their speed wasn't reasonable because they couldn't keep their attention on the road and keep looking at the hazards around them. So basically they should be going zero miles per hour, depending on what they're doing. The other two laws we have are more like cell phone laws. One is a strict cell phone law that says you can't hold the phone whatsoever while you're driving. It's got to be hands-free, so it can be on a standalone device or even like if you have an iPhone, you can use AirPods. The other thing is the other law we have is an image display device, which basically says you can use your GPS on your phone, but you can't be watching. The one I see commonly is like music videos playing on your YouTube or movies or cartoons, something where the driver would be able to see it. Okay. What about different states have different laws? So each state does have their own laws. Obviously, I don't even know each state's law on cell phone usage, but more than likely, yes, the easiest thing would be don't use a cell phone or hold a cell phone when you're in those states because more than likely they all have something that goes along the same lines of you shouldn't be holding a cell phone while driving. And probably it's probably just best just to check with your own state wherever you are what their laws are. Correct. And that would go for probably every law, not just cell phones. Share with us what you are currently seeing on the road these days while you're on patrol. So I've been on for nine years. I've kind of gone through my head of what kind of stands out on some of the things I've seen. I had a crash on I-19, which is Interstate 19. One time that a girl wanted me to call her mom after the crash happened. Luckily, she was okay. She was a teenager. As I opened her phone up for her to call her mom, her Snapchat was actually the first thing noticed and half her face was in the screen and the other half was getting blurred out. As I looked at the phone, it was just a single vehicle crash where she ended up going off into the median, desert area median. They had some construction attenuators along the median. Luckily, no one was there that day. Another thing that kind of stood out is I've had people reading newspapers. As I mentioned, one man had a newspaper on his iPad. His iPad was leaning up against his steering wheel. That was on I-10. Back when Pokemon Go was very popular, I had a young male playing Pokemon Go. The other thing I remember for him was he wasn't wearing a seatbelt also while he was doing it. We had a semi-truck driver on FaceTime. We got what we call an attempt to locate call about a man on his phone driving all over the road. That was about one mile post. We ended up stopping him 12 miles later, I should say, still all over the phone. Another one, I was in the left lane, car driving slow in front of me. I ended up stopping it. It was two young males watching cartoons. They had their cell phone up on their dashboard, working one night. Back when I was a newer trooper, again, vehicles were moving all over the road. It was nighttime. I could see the screen but couldn't tell what was going on. I ended up going up. The girl admitted she was watching YouTube. It just happened yesterday, actually, coming down a surface street. There was a vehicle in the left turn lane, two straight lanes, and then the right turn lane to go onto the frontage road to get to the interstate vehicle. One car was in front of me as it went by. The vehicle in the left turn lane cut across two lanes into the right lane. As we turned onto the frontage road up to the on-ramp, I could see the vehicle swerving. As we got onto I-10, the vehicle moved into the furthest right lane, leaving the acceleration still open. I pulled up next to it. I could see the man on the phone. As I got to the passenger side of the vehicle, he actually had two tablets and two cell phones on his front passenger seat. This last week, too, where a man called in, hit a street sign, I ended up admitting to dispatch that he was texting while driving, which is why he hit the sign. Troopers got on scene. I wasn't actually on this, but troopers got on scene. I saw the call. And the driver was actually suspended slash revoked 25 times. Not only was he distracted, but he was also suspended. Well, he was suspended slash revoked. The last one that really has stuck out to me was last Friday. It was downtown I-10, Friday morning at 7 o'clock, so rush hour. As I was in the third lane, a car went by me. As it went by me, I noticed the driver had his cell phone in his hand. Ended up moving behind the car. Noticed the vehicle was swerving all over the road. We ended up stopping a median in the downtown area and ended up being an impaired driver. That was a .236 alcohol content, which is three times over the legal limit. He was on his cell phone plus three times the legal limit. Amen. I guess it just doesn't stop. Are you seeing the rates of distracted driving incidences increasing? I would say once we got the cell phone law, which happened a few years back, I think it has helped. I do see more people using their standalone devices more. Obviously, we live with so many people in this world. I mean, there's still tons of people who get distracted by their cell phone. I think it's just because it's been a bad habit. I would say it's probably more like 50-50, but I think it's helped. Obviously, there's still tons of population that still feel like they need to pick up their phone for whatever reason. Are you seeing any differences between the various age groups? Yes. Again, this is more my opinion, but I do feel like teenagers to probably 40, 50-year-olds tend to use the phone more. People anywhere from 50, 60 and older, it doesn't seem like you use the phone as much. But I think that's more because, and I'm 34, so I'm kind of in that millennial age, but I feel like people that are anywhere between 19 and probably 50 have been around, grown up more with phones than people that were born in the 30s or 40s because the phones just weren't as popular, especially cell phone usage at that point. Let's move on to some defensive driving tips. What do you have? Well, I even take this in my own perspective, especially because I'm obviously not a cop 24-7 when I'm in my own car with my family. If I tend to see someone who's on the cell phone or doing makeup, I actually just try to get it either far enough away from getting back. I'll move a couple lanes over. I'll get in front of them, but I will make sure I'm passing traffic because the last thing I want to do is have that distracted driver around me because if we get an official from the city, that car gets behind you and they're not paying attention. They may end up in back of you. But the best thing I could recommend too, and I think this has a lot to do with collisions as well, especially on the interstate, is cars providing enough distance. I feel like a lot of our collisions tend to be cars tailgating each other. One car chain reacts, brakes abruptly. The next car behind it brakes abruptly, and suddenly someone ends up braking and not having enough distance where they end up re-earning them. But if you're providing that distance between you and the car in front of you, not only are you giving yourself enough time to stop, but even if the guy is tailgating behind you, you're also potentially giving him enough time to stop. He sees your brake lights because if everyone suddenly abruptly brakes, they're going to end up re-earning each other versus if you give yourself plenty of time to brake, it's also even though the guy is behind you driving too closely, it's going to give him enough time because you guys are both gradually slowing down instead of slamming on your brakes. So it kind of goes hand-in-hand to me with the distracted driving and the following distance because it can end up giving someone enough time to react, especially if they're looking at their phone and they briefly look up and down because that's what it seems like people do. They'll look at their phone for a second, try to look at the road, look at their phone, look at the road, vice versa. And this might be repetitive, but in closing, what would you say to help us to make it safer to be on the road? Well, probably the safest thing is everyone just puts their phone down, and if everyone's eyes are on the road, it'll definitely help prevent some of the collisions. Being a defensive driver instead of being an aggressive driver also helps. I get people, and the one thing I notice a lot, it seems like people run late for work. They think by cutting out traffic, tailgating, they're going to save a bunch of time, but if they actually look, especially if we take long road trips and look at your GPS, you don't really gain any time at all. So if everyone was a little more patient on the road instead of riding everyone's butt, I guess would be the easiest way to say it. It would prevent a lot of collisions, and the one thing I always joke about because almost everyone does it at some point in their life, it amazes me how we can go to Disneyland or some amusement park, spend 45 minutes in line, be happy, but we spend 45 seconds on that ride, yet we get on the interstate, and we act like the whole world's going to end, and we all drive very aggressive and just are to ourselves and not concerned with the people around us. So how distracted are you when you get behind the wheel? For Your Moment in Tech, this is Jay Melnick.