This week, Tennessee House Republicans continued to address distracted driving by advancing Elizabethton Rep. John Holsclaw’s bill, which expands the offense of holding cellphones while driving through school zones to statewide implementation.
The overall goal of the initiative is to improve public safety by reducing instances of distracted driving.
Tennessee currently ranks first in distracted driving deaths. Additionally, the number of deaths caused by distracted driving in our state is five times higher than our national average.
We agree with Rep. Holsclaw that texting while driving must be taken seriously. Texting while driving often takes a driver’s eyes off the road for five seconds or more. At 55 mph, that’s the equivalent of driving the length of a football field with one’s eyes closed.
People are dying at an untold rate from vehicle crashes caused by distracted driving, including texting while driving.
Until our government leaders, laws and drivers themselves take it seriously, the problem will only get worse.
There was a time when a distracted driver was a parent fuming at a couple of kids yipping at each other in the back seat. Today, the internet and social media are all around — including on our dashboards.
Drivers can check Facebook posts, pore over email or chart a course for the nearest rest stop, restroom, or restaurant, all while cruising down the highway. It may be a sign of the times, but it’s nonetheless an outcome of automobile innovation that needs addressing.
Distracted driving is one of the many negative side effects of a society that has rapidly and increasingly become connected to social media.
A recent AAA study found that more than 70 percent of Americans support a ban on handheld devices while driving. Short of such laws taking hold, individual drivers must weigh the gravity of risking human life against the use of handheld electronic devices while driving.
An advocacy organization that calls itself End Distracted Driving (EndDD.org) asserts that there are three kinds of distracted driving: Manual, visual and cognitive. Manual distractions are those where you move your hands from the wheel. Visual distractions are those where you focus your eyes away from the road. A cognitive distraction is when your mind wanders away from the task of driving.
Most distracted driving crashes include more than one of those three types of behavior. Texting involves all three. Taking your eyes off the road, taking your hands off the wheel and taking your mind away from the task of driving. The third is the most dangerous, because people are often not even aware of their distraction. Many people, particularly younger drivers, think they can multi-task, but they’re wrong. It’s impossible. Trying to do two things at once just means that the brain is constantly flitting back and forth between the tasks, and doing neither well. Just as it’s not possible to read and carry on a conversation at the same time, it’s impossible to drive and to text, even hands-free, and still focus on the road.
Distracted driving should be discouraged with the same urgency as drunken driving.
Making texting while driving a primary offense could change behavior, just as seat-belt laws and tougher DUI laws did. Drivers who wouldn’t dream of drinking and driving are still texting and chatting on their phones. They should know better, and they shouldn’t need a law to keep them from doing it whether they’re physically touching a phone or not.
We all need to take responsibility for our own actions.
You know what they say: Get off your phone and drive.