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Pocono News Section
I-Team Investigation: Driving While "InTEXTicated"
I-Team Investigation: Driving While "InTEXTicated" - Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 11:00PM EST
Reported by: Jeff Chirico
Sunday, Nov 25, 2007 @11:00pm EST
LEWISBURG, UNION COUNTY- If you know a teenager, then you probably know how important a cell phone is to them. But add in a two-ton car and you have a potentially deadly combination.
It's America's latest driving distraction. One teen says “I think it's very common. I'd say most kids text while they drive."
Typing messages on a cell phone behind the wheel can spell danger as you look down, away from the highway. But how risky is it? With the help of Lewisburg Police, the I-Team set up a course to show how quickly a driver can become distracted with potentially deadly consequences.
In July, a 19- year- old crashed his car into a Selinsgrove house while intoxicated and “texting.” No one was hurt. One month earlier five New York teens died instantly when their car swerved into the path of a tractor trailer. Police found recent text messages on the driver's phone.
"We probably think it's something we can do without any real consequence," says 18-year-old Devin Cassles of Lewisburg.
He’s heard of the deaths but admits it doesn't deter him from “texting” while driving, and he's not alone. A recent WBRE I-Team survey of 100 high school students found 71% do the same despite that 97% of them believe it's dangerous.
Lewisburg High School Driver's Education instructor Tim Jarrett says it's particularly unsafe for inexperienced drivers. "Young drivers have a tendency to look down and only look 5-6-8 seconds ahead when they need to look 15, 20. And any distraction that causes them to look down more makes it even worse," he said.
We asked Devin, a top student athlete to try our block-long course. I send him a text message and he's instructed to read it and reply to it while winding through the cones. He hits five moving at just 4 to 5 miles an hour! Devin says, "just from that little course it was relatively slow even just looking down for a couple seconds and you look up and you have to swerve pretty hard to avoid a cone."
Police Chief Paul Yost says the consequences can be compounded when traveling 55 miles a hour. A car at that speed can cover a football field in three seconds. "That little drift of two feet in your case could end up being 10-12 feet," said Yost.
State lawmakers are considering several bills that would make using cell phones while driving illegal. Some also address “texting”. But police and educators believe any law needs to make it cell phone use a primary offense, one that can allows cops to pull drivers over if they're spotted using a phone.
But some question whether that will work. New York had already banned the use of hand-held cell phones when the five cheerleaders were killed this past summer. Jarrett says, “I'm not sure what the answer is except, keep trying to educate them."
It's a lesson officials are asking parents to teach by example. | | |
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