The California 2011 Statewide Traffic Safety Survey showed that cellphone use while driving has become the No. 1 safety concern, surpassing the No. 1 concern of 2010 — speeding and aggressive driving.
Many Cal State Long Beach students agreed.
Senior civil engineering major Anthony Dombrowski said that other drivers are distracted when they “are putting on make-up or eating, but most of the time, the biggest distraction is just a cellphone.”
Although some drivers may brush off the initial $25 fine for texting while driving, many do not consider other fines as well, including court fees.
According to University Police Capt. Scott Brown, the price actually totals about $130.
In addition to fines, the driver’s insurance bill could be affected if cited multiple times, Brown said.
The Traffic Safety Survey also found that about 60.1 percent of Californians have been or almost have been hit by a driver who was on the phone.
“It’s important not to [text while driving] especially around campus,” Brown said. “Pedestrians always step out and … reaction times are slow already.”
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed to have automakers design dashboards that disable distracting devices. This means that a driver would only be able to respond to a text if the vehicle is in park.
“I like the idea,” Dombrowski said. “But it should already be common sense not to use your phone while driving, we don’t need a device to tell us that.”
Joseph Dondero, a junior psychology major, admits to occasionally texting while driving, but believes it’s up to the drivers to be more responsible.
“It’s not the responsibility of the government or car makers to make sure people are paying attention while driving,” Dondero said.
Even with all these concerns, there are still drivers who continue to use phones while behind the wheel.
“We all do it,” Brown said. “Even though I know better, it is like the Pavlovian dogs’ ingrained response … to immediately check a message.”
Dondero thinks the importance of the conversation is directly linked to how distracted the driver will be.
“Letting a friend know that I’m on my way isn’t a big distraction, but then there are those people who have business meetings or get divorced over the phone,” Dondero said.
I think we live in a culture where business people need to ‘hit the ball over the net’. Teens consider it rude not to reply immediately to texts. Home schedules would grind to a halt without immediate communication. We are conditioned to pursue this level of efficiency but we are all supposed cease this behavior once we sit in our respective 5,000 pound pieces of steel and glass. Creating a sustainably safer driver may start with public awareness via legislation but legislation alone cannot win this battle.
I read that more than 3/4 of teens text daily – many text more 4000 times a month. New college students no longer have email addresses! They use texting and Facebook – even with their professors. Tweens (ages 9 -12) send texts to each other from their bikes. This text and drive issue is in its infancy and I think we need to do more than legislate.
I decided to do something about distracted driving after my three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me by a texting driver. Instead of a shackle that locks down phones and alienates the user (especially teens) I built a tool called OTTER that is a simple GPS based texting auto reply app for smartphones. It also silences call ringtones while driving unless you have a bluetooth enabled. I think if we can empower the individual then change will come to our highways now and not just our laws.
Erik Wood, owner
OTTER LLC
OTTER app