In the fall of 2015, a Michigan woman struck and killed a
bicyclist because she was using her cell phone while driving her car. After
pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge, the judge gave an unusual sentence: the
woman cannot own or use a cell phone or other portable device during her
two-year probation. The judge acknowledged someone could challenge his
authority to impose this sentence, but he did it at the victim’s husband’s
suggestion.
In Minnesota, a bicyclist victim’s family and a distracted
driver cooperated with the Minnesota State Patrol in making a public service video. According
to the Star Tribune, distracted driving accounts for one in four crashes in
Minnesota. The distracted driver in his orange prison jumpsuit recounts how he
reached for his phone to make a loan payment after thinking, “What better time
to do it than now?” The victim’s husband said this could easily have been him,
but since this horrible accident, he does not use a cell phone while driving.
A University
of Nebraska Medical Center studyshowed that, between 2005 and
2010, the number of pedestrians struck and killed by distracted drivers
increased nearly 50 percent. For bicyclists, the increase was 30 percent. As a
result of these accidents, 4 states now prohibit hand-held cell phone use while
driving and 46 states ban texting. Michigan bans texting but does not otherwise
restrict cell phone use. Police crash report forms now routinely include information
on types of driver distractions, including driver fatigue, looking at scenery,
eating or drinking, and texting or cell phone use. See the Governor’s
Highway Safety Association
website.
I have fumbled around
trying to touch the right places to call my kids with the allegedly hands-free
system in my car. These articles and statistics are enough to make me pause. I
can talk to the kids when I get home.