Text Messages Are Drivers' Latest Distraction

By RICH SHOPES and LINDSAY WILKES-EDRINGTON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 20, 2007

TAMPA - Jessica Smith said she sends text messages on her cell phone just about every time she drives.

"I'm really fast and I don't even have to glance down," the 16-year-old Land O' Lakes High School student says. "I'm so busy that I feel I have to do multiple things at one time."

If Smith is feeling harried, she's not alone. Studies by health groups, insurance companies and colleges suggest more drivers are glancing away from the road and for longer periods, all to stay connected.

A Nationwide Insurance survey of 1,200 drivers, released in January, showed 19 percent have sent text messages while driving and 73 percent have talked on a cell phone behind the wheel.

Safety advocates are throwing in the towel on many lower-tech forms of distraction - cup holders, ashtrays, even radios - and now point to cell phones and handheld mobile devices as potentially more worrisome because they make drivers glance away from the road.

A recent New York crash that killed five teens has been linked to text messaging.

"Anything that takes eyes away from the roadway repeatedly or multiple glances or for longer lengths of time is going to cause an increased risk, and that is text messaging, putting on makeup, reading, using a Blackberry," said Charlie Klauer, a researcher from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg.

Driver distraction is rallying advocacy groups and sparking debate at state legislatures. Florida could see a bill wending its way through the state Capitol next year.

Against The Law

A bill in the state Senate last session would have barred people from text messaging or using hand-held cell phones while driving, but it died for lack of a House sponsor.

Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami Gardens, the bill's sponsor, is optimistic about the legislation's chances for next year. She already has a sponsor on the House side, Rep. Ronald Brise, D-Miami, and was told by Sen. Carey Baker, chairman of the powerful Senate Transportation Committee, that the cell phone measure "was a good bill."

For another reason, "I think a lot of senators are following what's going on in New York."

Wilson was referring to the death June 28 of five upstate New York teens, recent high school graduates who were killed when the SUV they were riding in hit a tractor-trailer. Using cell phone records and interviews, police learned that the 17-year-old driver was exchanging text messages on her phone moments before the crash.

Now, lawmakers in New York and New Jersey are looking into whether to ban text messaging while driving.

Washington state already does. Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., all have laws barring drivers from using hand-held cell phones, and California's law takes effect next July.

More tragedies like New York's could happen unless teens get the safety message, said Stephen Wallace, chairman of Students Against Destructive Decisions, also known as SADD, the non-profit organization based in Marlborough, Mass., that focuses on teen health issues.

Wallace said he's frightened by admissions like Jessica Smith's, the Land O' Lakes student.

"She claims she's really good at texting and only has to look down a little bit," he said. "What about those times she's looking down, when she's not looking at the road? Young people are wildly underestimating the dangers of driving and texting at the same time."

He encourages teens to pull over or hand the phone to someone else in the car. Some other not-so-obvious safety advice: Preprogram radio stations and preload CDs before setting out and make any adjustments needed beforehand, too - seats, climate control and mirrors, for example.

Teens See The Danger

Some local teens say they've gotten the message.

"It's just not safe," said Christine Young and Suzanne Murry of Sarasota, speaking about text messaging behind the wheel.

"I have friends whose parents actually check their cell phones to see if they've been doing it," said Young, 15, during a visit this week with Murry, her 16-year-old friend, to Tampa's International Plaza.

Last year, SADD and insurer Liberty Mutual Group released a study of 903 teen drivers showing 37 percent had used their cell phones to send text messages while behind the wheel.

The teens said they considered text messaging the most distracting activity they engage in while driving, ahead of emotional influences such as anxiety, at 20 percent, and conversations with other passengers, at 19 percent.

In a more comprehensive look at driving habits released last year, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute installed cameras and sensors inside the vehicles of 100 drivers in metropolitan Washington, D.C., and studied their habits during 2003 and 2004.

The institute found that the drivers were involved in 69 crashes, some more than one, and that 80 percent were the result of driver distraction including the use of wireless technology. The remaining 20 percent were caused by outside influences.

The Virginia Tech study defined "crashes" as physical contact, including collisions, running over a curb and tapping a bumper.

"We found that dialing a cell phone increased the crash risk by almost three times for an alert driver," said Klauer, the Virginia Tech researcher who headed the study.

Klauer said she wouldn't call text messaging the most dangerous activity drivers can engage in, but she noted that it ranks alongside reading in the car and applying makeup on the list of distractions. She also predicted more accidents as wireless device use spreads.

"As the prevalence of these devices increases so, too, will the number of times drivers take their eyes off of the road," Klauer said. "As more and more individuals engage in activities that are distracting then crashes will go up."

Accidents On The Rise

In Florida, a survey by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles found a 15 percent jump in accidents blamed on distractions, including cell phones, from 2004 to 2005. In the two-year period ending in 2005, the department recorded a 22 percent jump.

Driver distraction is a constant problem in the Bay area, said Trooper Larry Coggins, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesman. Coggins and other police say cell phones are among the most widespread driver distractions.

Last month, Coggins pulled over a car on Harney Road near U.S. 301 going 25 mph over the speed limit. The driver was watching a movie on a DVD player and didn't see Coggins following him.

"At first I thought I had a runner. He kept going," said Coggins. "He had his head down, watching a DVD, and he was just going down the road."

Hillsborough Sheriff's Deputy Scott Skolnick said he's seen drivers working on laptop computers, shaving with electric razors, reading books in traffic, even reading a newspaper splayed across the steering wheel.

"I've got to believe there are better times to read than driving," Skolnick said.

In some ways, Jessica Smith is typical of drivers today. According to the survey by Nationwide Insurance, young people 18-27 are the nation's biggest multitaskers behind the wheel. Thirty-five percent admitted to always multitasking in the car, higher than Generation Xers (28-44) at 30 percent and baby boomers (45-60) at 21 percent.

The Land O' Lakes student insists she can handle multitasking but acknowledges it can get in the way.

"I do it even more when I'm at a stoplight," she said. "Sometimes I glance down and then forget the light's changed green."

Smith's friend Lailoni Kailimai said she doesn't send text messages in the car. She can't; her dad has been watching her cell phone bills lately for excessive text messaging, she said.

"And he's a cop."

Researcher Melanie Coon contributed to this report. Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes @tampatrib.com.

BESIDES DRIVING

A survey in November asked people what they've done while driving.

Adjusting radio station: 82 percent

Drinking beverage: 80 percent

Talking on cell phone: 73 percent

Eating snack: 68 percent

Daydreaming: 31 percent

Driving without shoes: 28 percent

Experiencing road rage: 23 percent

Talking with hands: 19 percent

Text messaging: 19 percent

Source: Online survey of U.S. drivers 18 or older by Market Vision Research, November 2006. 1,200 valid responses from 2,070 invitations. Margin of error plus or minus 4.5 percent.