With a surge of 605 roadway fatalities in 2016 and Colorado state officials calling distracted driving an “epidemic,” the Colorado Department of Transportation has joined a national movement recognizing April as National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
“I think people don’t understand the real danger when they take their eyes off the road,” CDOT spokesman Sam Cole said. “We know that an accident happens in an instant and unless you’re ready to respond, it could have tragic consequences. If you’re going 65, 70 miles per hour and take your eyes off the road to read a message, that’s the equivalent of driving the length of a football field and a lot can happen in that time.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines distracted driving as any activity that diverts attention away from the primary task of driving. Possible distractions include adjusting the radio, eating and drinking, using a navigation system and talking and texting. It continues to be an ongoing issue nationally.
According to the Center for Disease Control, distracted driving kills more than eight people and injures 1,161 people each day in the U.S. In Colorado, an estimated 57,298 distracted-driving crashes occurred between 2012 and 2015 with an average of 40 distracted-driving crashes occurring each day last year.
But Cole said he thinks distracted driving crashes are “substantially under-reported.”
“It’s not in somebody’s best interest to admit what they were doing right before a crash,” he said. “Not everybody is forthcoming about what they were doing and part of the reason we want people to share on our Facebook is because we want to start a conversation. Everybody has an opinion about this and we want to hold people accountable.”
In a survey conducted by CDOT in November, 22 percent of Colorado drivers admitted to reading messages while driving, 64 percent used some sort of entertainment, and 33 percent talked on a handheld phone.
Colorado State Patrol spokesman Nate Reid suggested that drivers inclined to check their phones as soon as they hear an alert put their phone on vibrate and in the backseat.
However, distracted driving goes beyond just using a device, he said.
“It’s less about the law and more about the impact of what somebody distracted while driving can have. It’s not about writing tickets and punishing them,” he said. “It’s because too many people get killed in car crashes every year. I want people to do whatever they have to to focus.”
Colorado law restricts minors from any sort of cell phone use, but drivers 18 and older are only prohibited from texting while driving and similar forms of manual data entry. Reid said an initial violation is a $50 fine and the subsequent offenses are $100. Both have a $7 surcharge and one point off a license.
“Typically it’s pretty easy to tell if somebody is doing some sort of data entry,” he said. “Even hands-free is a distraction from the complex task of driving an automobile.”
Tracey Holmberg, injury and trauma coordinator at Swedish Medical Center, works with a campaign called “Just Drive: Take Action Against Distraction,” which offers educational classes about distracted driving to teens and adults. She agreed and said hands-free is just as distracting as using a handheld device.
“Everybody thinks it’s better, but both involve a cognitive distraction,” she said. “When you’re on the phone, you’re missing about 50 percent of your driving environment and the conversation comes before the driving part.”
Holmberg said people always blame teens for using their phone while behind the wheel, but adults are just as guilty. “The majority of people we reach in our classes are in between the 35 and 64 age range. Everybody knows it’s wrong to do it but it’s always somebody else on the road.”
CDOT will share videos demonstrating the consequences of distracted driving throughout the month on its Facebook page including “Killer Habit,” which was part of its 2016 “Drop the Distraction” campaign. The organization is also asking for the public to share their own videos or distracted driving experiences, regardless of whether they were a victim or guilty of the practice.
“People think they can multitask while driving and they can’t,” Cole said. “It is the most dangerous thing most people will do all day. They will is get in the car and drive. So why do it while distracted?”
