Photo shows why it’s a bad idea to talk or text and drive
August 21, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Transportation safety, cell phone and driving
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. Here’s photographic proof of why it’s not safe for employees to use their cell phones while driving.
A tow truck driver ran his vehicle into a swimming pool after texting on one cell phone while talking on another. You can see the result here (and then share the photo with workers at your next safety meeting).
Police in Lockport, NY, say 25-year-old Nicholas Sparks admitted he was texting and talking while his flatbed truck hit a car, crashed through a fence, sideswiped a house and then rolled into an in-ground pool.
The driver of the struck car suffered head injuries but is in good condition. A child passenger suffered minor injuries.
Sparks is charged with reckless driving, talking on a cell phone while driving and following too closely.
SafetyNewsAlert.com delivers the latest Safety news once a week to the inboxes of over 270,000 Safety professionals.
Click here to sign up and start your FREE subscription to SafetyNewsAlert!
Tags: reckless driving, text and drive, tow truck into swimming pool
Loading ...
August 24th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
In Great Britain there is a PSA that’s on the airwaves now that shows three teenage girls in a car, and the driver is texting while she’s driving. They get in a car wreck, and it is very graphic about what happens.
It’s high on shock value, but maybe that’s what you need to drive the point home to drivers not to text and drive.
August 25th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
The only problem with examples like this is that the driver is usually doing another unsafe thing in addition to the texting. (S)He’s texting AND talking, texting AND being distracted by passengers, texting AND driving drunk. People who are in denial about the dangers of texting while driving will look at these examples and think, “oh, I’m alright because I’m just reading a text message, not typing one and doing all those other things.”
I’m at a loss to explain how exactly is reading a text message or email on one’s Blackberry any different from reading a map or a printed set of directions while driving. Everyone’s done it and no one they know has gotten into a wreck while doing it.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Jennifer, I must disagree with you. Yes, the article does elude to the fact that the driver was doing multiple no-no’s when he crashed into the car, the house and finally the swimming pool. However, I know a young lady that was on a paved country road with very little traffic. She ended up upside down in a ditch because she was reading a text message instead of paying attention to her driving. Another person I know crashed into a stone guard house when exiting a gated residential neighborhood. He was checking information on his computer instead of paying attention to his driving. If I’m driving and need to check a map, I pull off the road or have my passenger check the map. Now, on the other hand, I do talk on my cell phone with a totally hands-free system. I also talk to passengers in my car which to me is very close to the same. Act responsibly!
August 26th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’m with Jennifer, you can do 100 other things in a vehicle that will distract anyone just long enough to cause a tragic accident – makeup, happy meals, giving kidz bottles in the back seat. You just can’t regulate EVERYTHING…
August 26th, 2009 at 10:50 am
I guess I should give men similar deeds – shaving, reading the Wall Street Journal, etc.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Reading a map or any other materials while driving is not safe either. And people have had accidents while doing so.
If you need to text, take or make a call, read a map or directions, pick up something that fell to the floor, deal with a child, pull over! You may be a few minutes late to your destination by doing so, but you will get there. And other folks on the road with you will get to their destinations too.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Jennifer, that’s the ostrich approach of sticking the head in the sand. I don’t like being a hypocrite, so I’ll state for the record, I’ve done texting, read emails and looks at maps while driving. I know it’s wrong and dangerous, but I do try to pick my spots (stopped or very slow traffic, or open rode with no one around). Still dangerous and I shouldn’t be doing it. I have been cutting back on it, and hope to eliminate it. I was almost t-boned the other day by a guy that was reading blackberry and ran a red light. After having experienced that, and watching the video, it at least makes people think about it. If it saves one fatal accident, it’s worth it.
I’m not sure how you enforce any laws prohibiting it. Again, like so many things in life, it’s about being responsible and respecting others.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:46 am
Everyone is condemning, rightfully so, the distractions willfully experienced by drivers, but what about the electronic billboards that advertisers have been putting up in increasing numbers? The intensity of the brightness, colors and movement of the lights is incredibly distracting–and obviously INTENDED to distract the driver’s attention from driving to reading their signs. I believe these should be regulated out of existence.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:12 am
Well, I still return to MPH in relation to FPS as it relates to reaction time. When driving a motor vehicle we are bombarded with all sorts of outside sensory distraction. Several questions come to mind, with regards to driver distractions:
1. Does you respective state tests a perspective driver for multi-tasking when driving.
2. Is there a tipping point where a driver becomes unsafe when dealing with sensory distractions?
3. Among the vast number of variable distractions, which ones are absolutely necessary and which ones could wait until the driver has arrived at his/her destination.
For those individuals, who are attempting to rationalize certain distractions as being benign, let me close with this image: You are on an airplane and you are on final approach for landing, do you want your pilot do any of the following: drinking, shaving, putting lipstick on, combing hair, reading notes, etc, or do you want them paying attention to just those task associated with landing. Normally, in an emergency you get only one chance to get it right.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:48 am
Wow… Jenny…. I guess you’ve just got it all under control. You should be ashamed of that answer. Although you are right. It is no different than reading a newspaper, or reading a map or GPS, (DUH) or as Leigh said… makeup happy meals, bottles.. (another real brain surgeon here). IT’S ALL BAD. STOP DOING ANY OF IT. Stop making excuses for the things that probably 95% of us ALL do in the car that is WRONG. and I did see “we all do” because I’m just as guilty. But now is the time to take a stand and STOP it!
Butch
August 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
We call it ‘Driving While Oblivious’ (DWO). Drunk, blind, asleep, phoning and texting are momentary (or longer) hazardous inattentive moments. Isaac Newton is uncompromising and unforgiving of even small mistakes. The squirrel at the side of the road is an example of the damage the car can do, would that we could teach the squirrel to cross the road safely.
The tip of the iceberg (Titanic?) of this catastrophe is that kids are so acclimated, accepting and habituated to constant electronic socializing that there is little forethought to the importance of ignoring the device while driving.
Would disabling the electronics take away our rights? Would you yell at or tackle a child running out into traffic? Will a public relations campaign make us safer against oncoming traffic?
We can build a fence around the pool or teach the kids to swim well, both will help.
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I agree that all distractions need to stop. I witnessed a St. Charles Parish (in Louisiana) sheriff’s deputy driving down the road holding a bowl of water in his left hand, face full of shaving cream and the razor in his right hand making a left turn onto the interstate! Needless to say I reported him to the Sheriff. It’s crazy!!!
September 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
The difference between talking on a hands free phone system and to a passenger in the car is that the passenger is IN the car and able to see what is going on around the vehicle. Passengers can spot danger and stop talking; cell phone partner has no idea when to stop. Bad as all the activities listed above may be, there is still nothing to compare to the distraction of fussing children in the back seat. I have no idea of how that can be completely stopped, parental training for older children, but for the infant and toddler riding behind the driver, the danger is one of the biggest driving hazards. A choking infant will no doubt seriously distract the driver. Pulling over is great advice, if you are not on a 3 lane highway in rush hour traffic between day care and home.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Right on, Butch. There has never been a time when defensive driving has been more important. These people who are driving while oblivious (texting, taking calls, making calls, reading the GPS, applying makeup and/or eating) are just plain selfish. It’s one thing to jeopardize their own safety but I resent them taking my life and safety for granted. I’m a “government hands off” Republican but I take pleasure in seeing the Washington State Patrol ticket drivers for cell phone usage while driving. This behavior is not limited to the electronically dependant teens to twenties either. It’s common to see a middle-aged head attached to a cellphone while driving. Come on people!
October 15th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I am an over-the-road truck driver, witnessing examples of distracted driving on a daily basis. My
personal ‘favorite’: SUV on freeway, driver has papers spread across dashboard&seat, cell phone
tucked under chin,laptop computer open on seat, typing, talking,taking notes, and oh, by the way
OCCASIONALLY LOOKING UP TO SEE WHERE HE’S GOING IN A SIX THOUSAND POUND VEHICLE
at SIXTY MILES an HOUR!!
December 31st, 2009 at 10:59 am
[...] Photo shows why it’s a bad idea to talk or text and drive [...]
January 5th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Oh my GOD!! This subject has been beaten to death! I have been driving on county and state roads and seen people swerving in their own lane and over the center line. They aren’t talking on the phone (that I could tell or if they were it was a hands-free set), there wasn’t anyone else in the car, they weren’t puting on make up or shaving or smoking either. So what is their excuse, other than stupidity?
I smoke when I drive. I also answer my phone. I have also texted. I have NEVER caused an accident. I was involved in an accident when a lady went across the road in front of me. She wasn’t paying attention and ran a stop sign. She wasn’t doing anything except driving her car.
Don’t blame the cell phone. Blame the moron behind the wheel!!!!!
January 5th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Sounds like “new safety girl” will never make it to “old safety girl” with a checks and balance system like that. Let’s see now what have you got going on… you smoke, strike one… you answer your phone, strike two…. you text while driving, strike three… yet you have never caused an acciden….. Well… not that you are aware of anyway. Good luck NSG.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
To New Safety Girl: I think most of us are blaming the moron behind the wheel. Yes, anyone can cause an accident. However, if a driver is performing acts other than driving, yes even smoking, the driver’s attention to driving may be diverted, especially if they are doing more than one other thing than driving (i.e. smoking and texting – do you have a free hand for driving & how do you keep your eyes on the road). Not everyone who answers a cell phone, or puts on their makeup using the rear view mirror causes an accident, but the potential is there. If you really are a safety girl for a company/organization, I suggest that you check with your insurer to see if a driver would be covered or if there would be any implication if a driver had an accident while using their cell to talk or text. Several states have now banned such. Because of insurance and the implications that could be made if there was an accident, our company has instructed our employees to pull off the road to take a cell phone call. If that can’t be easily done, then pull off and give a call back to the other party.
January 6th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Well, Butch and Mary, thanks for the vote of confidence. It’s so nice to know that someone new to the profession can express themselves and not have people think they are stupid. You are assuming that I do this on company time. And you are assuming that I do all of these things at the same time. Hmmm…you know what they say about assuming….
It was just an observation about other people driving and what I have done while driving on my own time, NOT that I do all of those things at the same time, and NOT on company time. If I am on company time, I don’t answer my phone (unless I am using a Bluetooth headset and only if it is the company calling not personal calls), I don’t smoke in company vehicles, and I don’t text.
I have been the Safety Coordinator at a manufacturing company for almost a year. Before I got asked to take this job, there was no safety program, no OSHA forms being done (ie 300 and 301 forms), nothing being checked for compliance. But since I started, we are in compliance with OSHA standards (and yes, we did have inspectors come through), we have monthly safety meetings, and there is documentation for just about anything you can think of. So next time you talk to someone who is new, try not to treat them like an idiot. Thanks SO much.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Hey New Safety Girl – You opened yourself up to the comments. I, too, have been jumped on for my comments in these blogs…but give some consideration to the comments. We are here to share information and sometimes give advice…you just didn’t ask for any. But seriously, for your own protection, when driving on your own time, check your state’s laws on cells and texting while driving and check your personal insurance. You may not be the cause of the accident, but don’t get drug into litigation with the other parting yelling, I saw her texting on her cell. As someone else said earlier, we’ve all done some or all of the things that shouldn’t be done while driving….I have, you have. I’ve learned to limit my actions when behind the wheel for my own personal safety and I may still get involved in an accident…I hope not. Only offering constructive criticism. Congratulations on your accomplishments in your safety job and good luck in the future. You may think I am, but I really dont’ feel like the rear if a donkey.
January 8th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Yes, NSG, don’t take it so hard. If you look back in the blogs you can see that I’m as bad as the next person. The reality of the situation is that we all do these things but we must take a stand and STOP IT! One more thing, you have shown initiative by your response and by your actions within your company…. so…. Stop smoking!
We want to keep you around.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Mary, I didn’t really think about the state driving laws, but I went and checked them. There are no laws in North Dakota for texting/cell phone usage, unless it is for the company you work for. I think that it’s kind of odd. Almost every state has a law of some sort against it. But I guess it could be because of the low population here.
And thanks for the congrats…I don’t get much of that around here. I’m pretty much the most hated person in the shop. Some of these guys have been working here longer than I’ve been alive (I’m 28) and they don’t like taking orders from a woman, either.
I’ll try to take comments/criticism under advisement next time, instead of going off half-cocked. Thanks…
January 8th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
New Safety Girl: We are all in this together, no matter what state or what company and we all have our own opinion. As for being the most hated person in the shop…get use to it…I’ve been there. I worked in safety for a short time while we were replacing an employee. My regular job is HR and I’ve been in that position for a number of years. There was a time that I was the young woman in the company and due to my duties and things that needed some change, I became known as the “Bitch.” Well, over time, I decided that name no longer offended me…I worked for that title. That’s not to say that I didn’t do a little suffering along the way. Your employees will eventually get use to the changes and see them for the better. In the mean time, don’t let it get to you, you are doing what your job dictates.
Now, on to another subject…I’m again taking a stand against you and siding with Butch. Quit Smoking. You are still young and have so much to gain if you quit smoking now. I know, you think it is easy for me to say, but I smoked for…well, let’s just say that I smoked for a long number of years. I quit “cold turkey” 12 years ago. I feel so much better. I had a lung scan and found out that over the years my lungs have turned smooth and pink again. Believe me, those little cigarettes are not your friend, they are your biggest enemy. I rest my case.
Have a good weekend everyone and stay warm!