Posted on 12/25/2005 3:13:57 AM PST by Libloather
Cell phones prove deadly
Contributor in 14 fatalities this year on Toll Road, police say
By Joshua Stowe
South Bend Tribune
Posted on Sun, Dec. 25, 2005
ELKHART – Nick Vilders sees his cell phone as a lifesaver.
The Orland man said he’s placed countless calls to stay awake while driving home after a day’s work as a building maintenance employee on the Indiana Toll Road.
“I have a cell phone, I ain’t gonna lie,” Vilders said.
Police and safety experts say Vilders’ attitude, while common, puts him at risk. They say it’s a mistake to think a person can safely juggle driving and talking on a cell phone, a claim many motorists, Vilders included, just don’t believe.
For First Sgt. Dennis Boehler of the Indiana State Police, the ongoing debate about cell phone safety is far from academic.
Boehler blames distracted drivers for the high number of fatal accidents on the Indiana Toll Road this year.
At least 14 people have died on the Toll Road this year, he said. That’s up from nine deaths last year and just four in 2003, he said.
Boehler said cell phone usage is the root cause of many accidents that police see – both fatal and non-fatal.
“Most accidents are caused by driver error,” he said. “People don’t multitask as well as they think they can.
“People are so busy these days that driving time is wasted time for them,” he said. “They’ve got to get ready for that next meeting,” often by making or taking a call.
Karen Aldana, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, agreed.
“People casually talking on the phone while they’re driving, that creates a hazard for other drivers,” she said.
Like many motorists one spots in traffic, Vilders can’t do without his cell phone.
“Anymore, you can’t stop people from talking on their cell phone,” he said. “People are gonna do what they’re gonna do.”
Some drivers, such as Scott Mills of Cleveland, swear by hands-free technology.
Mills, who runs a leasing company, was returning from Minneapolis.
Armed with a BlackBerry and a headset clipped to his right ear, the businessman eyed the blustery conditions outside the Toll Road travel plaza where he’d stopped.
“When you’re driving someplace, you need to concentrate,” he said. “Definitely, having a hands-free (device), it’s a big help.”
It took Mills just seconds to demonstrate how he retrieves his BlackBerry from his belt, checks to see who’s calling and thumbs his keypad to accept or decline the call.
The sequence takes his eyes off the road for a brief moment, he said, but allows him to focus better than a typical cell phone would.
“It’s huge,” he said.
Although many motorists can’t refrain from calling, some do. Penny Holderbaun of Elkhart said she never reaches for her cell phone while driving to her job as a travel plaza cashier on the Toll Road.
“I don’t use my cell phone,” she said, even when she’s not on the road.
For those drivers who can’t resist the urge to phone a friend, Boehler said the best alternative is to pull over to a safe spot before calling.
“It’s not necessarily that they need to keep an eye on their own driving,” he said, “but they need to keep track of the vehicles around them.”
Boehler said he sees plenty of cell phone users while patrolling the Toll Road, something he doesn’t like but usually can’t do anything about.
Unless someone’s driving looks unsafe, he said, police can’t issue a ticket. The only thing they can do, he said, is try to warn people of the dangers cell phones pose on the road.
That won’t do much good, Vilders said, just as speed limits don’t slow lead-footed drivers.
“It’s everyday driving anymore,” he said.
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Three separate crashes on South Carolina highways have left four people dead.
In Greenville County, a Piedmont woman was charged with felony DUI involving death in connection with a crash early Thursday morning that left a Greenville woman dead, according to the highway patrol.
State troopers said a vehicle driven by Kimberly D. McCall ran a light at the intersection of Highway 253 and Highway 183 just after 1 a.m. and was hit by another vehicle.
Troopers said a female passenger in McCall's vehicle from Greenville was killed in the crash.
The victim's name was being withheld pending notification of relatives.
In Greenwood County, a man was killed in a crash Wednesday night on Bell Road.
The Greenwood County Coroner's Office said Jack Franklin Bobo, 32, died when his pickup truck ran off the road, went down and embankment and hit a tree.
The highway patrol said the accident happened about 9 p.m.
In Anderson County, a two-vehicle crash on Centerville Road killed two elderly men.
According to the County Coroner, George Britt, 96, and Clarence Edward Hamby, 79, died when the car they were riding crashed into a sport utility vehicle.
The coroner said neither of the victims was wearing a seat belt.
The driver of the SUV, who was wearing a seat belt, was not injured.
NEWSFLASH: Bad Drivers Prove Deadly!
“I don’t use my cell phone,” she said, even when she’s not on the road.
???
I continually see clots of traffic around/behind drivers blocking the fast lane, moving slower that traffic, while being distracted talking on cell phones. This both slows traffic and creates a clot of cars in close proximity to each other, making a crash more likely.
we are in the same camp, and on the interstate during the day about half the erratic drivers I am able to see or pass are holding a cell phone in their hands. I have no idea how many are on handless sets.
there are folks on FR who swear up and down it makes no difference at all if they are on the phone with regard to how they drive, and by inference anyone else, but I think they are wrong.
I'm sure the two old gents died trying to figure out how to use a cell phone to call hot chicks....
Women drivers and cell phones are a deadly combination.
Thank you!
It wasn't that long ago that many were lamenting the visor mirror as the widow maker. Before that, reaching for the radio knob was the big bugaboo. Then, of course, we mustn't forget those dreaded insects that get in the car and cause thousands of wrecks.
Cell phones ... From cancer to car wrecks. Why, they are right up there with Wal-Mart, Microsoft and Google in the leading causes of the fall of America.
I wish you a very Merry Christmas. It may be our last. ;)
Hey pal, I hope you have your flame-retardant suit on. By the way my own totally unscientific study has estimated that three out of four motoring cellphone yakkers are females. Hey ladies I'm not condemning anybody...just an observation I've made. I'll readily admit that the great majority of the people doing the crazy driving on "Police Wildest Videos" are male. It's just that females seem to be taking a large lead in the "misuse of cellphone while driving" situation.
Juts pass a law banning cell phone use like CT did and nobody will ever die in a car crash again.
the genie is out of the bottle for sure.
the ONLY constructive way to keep at least interstates free of cell phone yackers that I can think of is currently illegal ij the US, but would place jammers every half-mile or mile or 2, so that no call could be maintained. It punishes passenger yakkers as well, something without any clear benefit.
I would imagine the number of accidents involving cell phones is hugely underreported. There is simply no motivation to admit you were on the phone if it is nearly impossible to establish otherwise. (so what if the police can get cell records, how do you establish EXACT time of accident?)
Many new cars have "black box" data recorders. The time could be synched with the cell phone record.
CT's law allows hands free headset use while driving. I know that when in a heated argument (or any other high cogintive activity here), hands free or not, you are not concentrating enough on the road while talking on a cell phone.
I have a tracphone with about 40 minutes on it. I rarely use it - in fact, the battery is always low because I keep forgetting to charge it. I needed it when I had a flat tire and it was 9:30 at night at the mall and the stores were closed. I hate to see folks driving and yakking on the cell phone, or walking through the mall yakking, or getting waited on at the store or restaurant as the clerk or waitress is trying to check them out or take their order. It's rude and obnoxious behavior.
Are you referring to the ladies "farding in their cars?" Thank goodness Rush brought that to the nation's attention and averted many a tragedy.
Thanks for reminding me about that skit Rush did. It was a hoot! ;)
I wonder which one of these octogenarions was driving?
Geeeeeeez!
Merry Christmas!
Are the cell phone calls that important to risk your life or someone else's over a phone call?
How many times, have you been out on the roadways and been stuck between two drivers both using cell phones? It is nerve Wrecking!!!! Cell Phones are a blessing in Automobiles, for emergency calling, that is what God created Cell Phones for!
Personally, I am tired of seeing people with cell phones stuck to their heads, not only in cars, but in stores, on sidewalks, in parks. I have personally witnessed a person on a cell phone in a dress shop, talking about funeral arrangements, seen a woman in a park screaming at the top of her lungs to someone on a cell phone, seen a cell phone user run a red light that had been red for almost 10 seconds. Numerous times in stores , cell phone users are rude by holding up your shopping, because they are standing in front of an item on store rack you wish to purchase, jabbering on a cell phone..and oblivious to the fact they are even in a grocery store.
Cell phone users are as rude as some smokers. Just because you have a right to smoke or use a cell phone, does not give you a right to blow smoke in another's face, or assume you have the right to hold up traffic while you talk to someone on a cell phone.
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