About 20 years ago I almost killed my whole family. We were driving the four-lane back home from a vacation in fairly heavy traffic on a Saturday morning. Behind our station wagon I was towing a small boat, filled with suitcases and other gear we couldn’t fit into the car.
It all happened in an instant. I diverted my eyes from the road to check the traffic in the rear-view and see how the boat was tracking. It couldn’t have been more than two or three seconds. When I looked ahead again, the brake lights of the car in front were on and I was closing in fast.
Thinking my stopping distance would be long with the boat in back, I jerked the wheel left instead of braking and swerved into the left lane. That would have been a safe move – if not for the boat, which didn’t want to stop swerving. When it pulled us toward the shoulder, I swung the wheel right. In no time we were fishtailing between the left lane and the ditch while I fought for control.
I regained it. At the next exit I pulled off, took a good look at my wife and young son and daughter, and got out to make sure the boat was still secure on the trailer. I’m not sure how close my family thought we had come to oblivion; I only know I had to take a break and let the nerves settle before getting back on the road. Never before or since has it been more clear what a little inattention at the wheel can do.
Too much nagging?
It seems these days we get nagged a lot about inattentive driving – specifically related to cell phones and texting. The Safety First column in this issue of Cleaner tells how yet another major player – OSHA – has joined the campaign against distracted driving in general and texting in particular.
We’ve covered this topic in Cleaner once or twice before. And here I am writing about it again. The thing is, we read about serious accidents caused by people paying more attention to their smart phones than to the road, and yet many of us obliviously chatter and text and browse away.
Am I immune? No. I’ve made phone calls while under way. I’ve read incoming text messages. A few times while going down a wide-open freeway I have opened a Web page on my smart phone, to check sports scores and such. I have never texted – but still. After my experience, you would think I’d know better than to let my attention drift.
All it takes ...
You see, experience has taught me that a lot can happen in that second or two when we’re not looking where we should be. But surely, we might tell ourselves, driving the open freeway is different from being on an urban highway.
And it is, but still. Any number of things could cause a crash on what seems like a wide-open road. A deep bump. A deer darting out of the woods. Just plain drifting over toward the shoulder.
The statistics on distracted driving are sobering. A study from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) says texting is the most dangerous of cell-phone-related tasks done behind the wheel. It says a truck driver texting is 23.2 times more likely to have a crash than a trucker fully focused on driving.
The VTTI study also says that for every six seconds a driver spends sending or receiving a text message, his or her eyes are off the road for 4.6 seconds. In the case of my near-accident, 4.6 seconds would have put me into the rear bumper of the car ahead, and who knows if I would even have a family or be here to write this?
It’s not that hard
In these days of cell phones, people in service businesses face huge temptation to “stay connected” and “be productive” while driving. Are your people taking or making phone calls when they shouldn’t? Or, heaven forbid, dealing with text messages while in work trucks?
What I tell myself repeatedly is this: If it’s important enough to make that call or answer that text or check that website, it’s important enough to find a safe place and pull over for a bit.
Does that sound like a good policy to live by? I’m willing to try it if you are.
