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Wed. Apr 02, 2008

Shut Up And Drive

This topic is a real pet peeve of mine, on the basis of responsibility to your fellow travelers. But often the only way things change is when it hits the wallet.

Vanessa McGrogan never noticed the car ahead of her own speeding vehicle until it was too late. Jeffrey Stasium didn’t see the auto crossing the intersection until his pickup truck slammed into the driver’s door. The crashes, separated by three years and 160 miles, had two things in common. Both drivers were distracted by their cellphone use, according to lawsuits filed against them. And their employers wrote big checks in recent months to settle those suits in Fulton County.

In December, McGrogan’s employer, International Paper, agreed to pay $5.2 million to settle an accident in which a woman’s car was forced off the road and her arm was later amputated. In February, Modern Continental Construction Co. agreed to pay $750,000 to a woman whose car was struck by Stasium.

Workers on cell phones cost their companies big bucks in wrecks

Big checks totaling nearly $6 million, and that’s just two cases. One lawyer “pointed to a study that shows drivers on cellphones are as inattentive as those who are legally drunk and another that says drivers using hands-free devices are no better off than those using hand-held cells.”

Do you drink and drive? Would you drive with an open fifth of Jack Daniels between your legs? No? Then stay off your cell phone while rolling, shut up, and drive, because it’s the same damn thing.

I know, we’re all modern techno-people who have developed vast capabilities to multitask, but let’s break this down. Your brain must focus on two things: [1] making split-second decisions to control a rapidly moving ton of iron parts amongst other human lives who also happen to be wrapped in a ton of iron, and [2] a phone call to make sure your spouse picked up milk, only to find they also want to argue about the credit card bill that arrived today.

Now, I’m sorry, when I’m one of those other humans wrapped in iron hurtling along beside you … I get priority. You can pull over at the turn-off you’d have to make to go to the store to phone about the milk, and you can fight about money most any time.

I get priority over your ability to drink alcohol and drive, and I get priority when it comes to other behavior that makes you drive as if you were drunk.

And you do. Let there be no doubt about it. When I get cut off or nearly sideswiped by some fellow traveler in a hurtling ton of iron, invariably, they are on the phone. And when I watch passing drivers at busy intersections, fully a third of people appear to be talking into some device. Good as drunk. Scary numbers, those.

It matters not to me whether the call is personal or business, but some lawyers are mopping up on that data point. However, I do understand what drives a lot of this. As the article notes:

McArthur said even though cellphone use while driving is dangerous, attorneys are getting mixed messages. She recently attended a seminar for lawyers and said they got advice on how to call in and dictate messages from the car. “It’s a way to get things done while driving,” McArthur said.

Here in Atlanta, a lot of people suffer through daily commutes of an hour or more. And they feel they must ... be ... productive. I, on the other hand, work mostly from home these days. My morning commute involves dodging small furry critters, not humans driving as if they were drunk.

And I hope to keep it that way. Because you cell-phoning commuters scare me. And I see no sign whatsoever that people (outside of the above courtrooms) acknowledge the potential danger.