Lighter Load: It doesn’t take a study to tell ‘safe’ truckers what is dangerous
A recent study found that drivers who text are at a collision risk 23 times greater than when not texting.
By BARB KAMPBELL
The Trucker Staff
8/24/2009
Distracted driving is nothing new, but gadgets keep making it more of a problem.
It used to be a concern that truckers were too busy checking out women in four-wheelers because they could so easily peer into those vehicles. Or perhaps they spent too much time on the CB and didn’t pay attention while driving. And some probably still do those things.
There was and is also the dreaded falling asleep at the wheel issue and consumption of amphetamines to try to stop that drowsy driving.
And four-wheelers have been known to shave, apply makeup, eat, and do other distracting things while driving down the streets and highways of America, too.
Oh, and don’t forget drunk driving, which accounts for a whole lot of wrecks.
All of those are real concerns as they should be. But with all of the safety measures the industry takes, and this includes automobile and large truck safety, along comes something fairly new (at least if you’re over 40 or so) and rather small that continues to cause wrecks: the cell phone.
A recent study found that drivers who text are at a collision risk 23 times greater than when not texting.
The study showed truck drivers took their eyes off the road for about 5 seconds when texting. At about 55 mph in 5 seconds a vehicle could travel about the length of a football field. That’s a long way to go in a truck (or any moving vehicle for that matter) without looking at the road, especially with the long distances it takes to come to a stop in a big rig.
A new poll shows that many auto drivers know the risks of texting while driving — and do it anyway. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s poll shows that 87 percent of people consider drivers texting or e-mailing to pose a “very serious” safety threat (roughly the same percent who consider drunken drivers a threat).
Of the 2,501 drivers surveyed this past spring, 95 percent said that texting was unacceptable behavior. Yet 21 percent of drivers said they had recently texted or e-mailed while driving.
One driver interviewed by The New York Times said texting is “convenient.” And he puts “the phone on top of the steering wheel and text[s] with both thumbs.” Sometimes, “I’ll look up and realized there’s a car sitting there and swerve around it.” Yet this college graduate, one who is supposed to be at least minimally smart, continues to text.
In related news, a Public Citizen lawsuit claims that “the government has known” since 2003, “that drivers talking on their cell phones experience the same potentially deadly distraction whether they are using a handheld device or hands-free technology.”
Many states have banned cell phone use while driving and some have banned texting while driving. Some states allow hands-free use of cell phones, even though studies say the use of those are just as dangerous.
One problem with cell phones is that laws to curb in-cab, or in-automobile use, are hard to enforce. What deters a person from drinking and driving? What deters someone from texting and driving?
I would guess, and I hope I’m correct, that every trucker out there who is a “safe driver” knows that texting and driving is not only dangerous but deadly.
And they know that driving while talking on the phone is dangerous, too, hands-on or hands-free.
Thus, loaded with that knowledge, most truckers don’t chat away on the phone and text while driving their trucks down the highways and interstates of the U.S. But it only takes one texting driver to kill someone, or a dozen people, even.
Please tell me that you don’t need to be advised of the dangers of texting to stop doing it.
And if you didn’t know the dangers, now that a study says you are 23 percent more likely to crash while texting, you will forever stop a practice that should never have been started in a big rig.
Please, I hope, you are safe in every way possible.
I pray that you don’t drive tired and sleepy.
I implore you to buckle up for your own safety, too.
I don’t think those drivers who have 1 million, 2 million, or even 3 million or 4 million accident-free miles chat away on cell phones or text while trucking. I believe they truly are safe drivers who didn’t just get lucky to not have a wreck running all those miles.
If a lot of drivers continue to text and chat while driving, the million miler awards may become like the dinosaur: extinct.
E-mail: barbkampbell@thetrucker.com or visit www.barbkampbell.com to see information about her new book, “Living Life Inside Out.”