Texting and Driving, a Closer Look at the Dangers
By: Bob Clausen, KARK 4 News
Updated: October 31, 2012
At 16 to 20 years old, you are too young to drink, but old enough to drive around like you're drunk.
Studies have found if you are driving and texting you are as dangerous as a drunk driver.
There were 3,000 fatal car wrecks last year caused by someone sending a quick text or just glancing down at a text.
That is all it takes.
We wanted to take a closer look at, and demonstrate, the difficulty.
So, with help from the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office we set up a road course, complete with obstacles to simulate cars on the road and even a good old Arkansas highway construction zone or two.
We enlisted a handful of drivers.
Their job, simple, drive the course and respond to texts on their phones.
All they had to do, maintain 30 to 35 MPH and text me back.
No problem right? At first they responded with a few, short, one-word or two-word texts while driving the course.
Watching them navigate the cones they all seemed to do a pretty well.
It became clear why they were making it around okay, they weren't texting me back. At all.
"The detail you wanted from the text was difficult to do " Said driver Samantha Rezanoff.
Another driver summed it all up,
"You have to look at the phone to read it."
Driver Tiffany Wilkerson said the road, and what was in it, was not a priority
"I was not even looking at the road. I was glancing at the road, and looking at the text, I was trying to do both."
"It was very hard, very hard." said Lashae Miller.
But, they were all able to maintain speed and control when glancing at the phone.
Even though there were obvious difficulties, we were just getting started.
During the first road test drivers were going 30 to 35 MPH.
They were able to stay on course, but found it hard if at all possible to text me back.
"That's what people don't understand. They don't understand the complexity of their eyes off the road. Their hands are off the wheel. Their minds are off the task at hand," said Little Rock Attorney Gary Green.
Green is very visible for his backing of an anti-texting campaign. He sees first hand the damaging and sometimes tragic results. But, still sees people shrugging it off as something that is doable at any speed.
When our drivers get back on the course they get a passenger. Lt. Carl Minden of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office. In the back seat, his job is to verbally make sure our drivers maintain 40 to 45 MPH this time around.
Soon after they hit the gas we began sending texts.
It proved to be difficult, the faster speeds victimized cones, rattled a few nerves and unsettled our drivers.
"'You are shaking right now.' 'Yeah I am, that was scary.'" said Samantha Rezanoff as she rolled to a stop.
Lashae Miller pulled up after her 40 to 45 MPH lap.
"No. I cant do it. I could not do it at all. No, that was dangerous.Yes I would have hit someone or killed myself," said Miller
Even when our drivers gave up returning my texts, they still had trouble. The beeping or dinging phone was a clear distraction.
"People say 'I can text and drive,' no, no they can't. You can only pay attention to one or the other. You can't do both at the same time," said Gary Green.
Even glancing at the phone was a deadly distraction.
"What if you come across something or a child runs out in the road? A split second is all it takes," said driver Chris Snodgrass.
Green summed up the concern all drivers, young and old, need to keep in mind.
"Using the hands, the mind, using the eyes all at the same time. That's a complex function, that in a very very brief moment of time, somebody can get killed," he said.
It is against the law in Arkansas to text and drive. Laws are on the books and getting tougher every year.
They are not there because someone wants to keep you from communicating with anyone while you're traveling.
They just want to make sure you get to where you're going, without getting hurt or hurting anyone else.
Studies have found if you are driving and texting you are as dangerous as a drunk driver.
There were 3,000 fatal car wrecks last year caused by someone sending a quick text or just glancing down at a text.
That is all it takes.
We wanted to take a closer look at, and demonstrate, the difficulty.
So, with help from the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office we set up a road course, complete with obstacles to simulate cars on the road and even a good old Arkansas highway construction zone or two.
We enlisted a handful of drivers.
Their job, simple, drive the course and respond to texts on their phones.
All they had to do, maintain 30 to 35 MPH and text me back.
No problem right? At first they responded with a few, short, one-word or two-word texts while driving the course.
Watching them navigate the cones they all seemed to do a pretty well.
It became clear why they were making it around okay, they weren't texting me back. At all.
"The detail you wanted from the text was difficult to do " Said driver Samantha Rezanoff.
Another driver summed it all up,
"You have to look at the phone to read it."
Driver Tiffany Wilkerson said the road, and what was in it, was not a priority
"I was not even looking at the road. I was glancing at the road, and looking at the text, I was trying to do both."
"It was very hard, very hard." said Lashae Miller.
But, they were all able to maintain speed and control when glancing at the phone.
Even though there were obvious difficulties, we were just getting started.
During the first road test drivers were going 30 to 35 MPH.
They were able to stay on course, but found it hard if at all possible to text me back.
"That's what people don't understand. They don't understand the complexity of their eyes off the road. Their hands are off the wheel. Their minds are off the task at hand," said Little Rock Attorney Gary Green.
Green is very visible for his backing of an anti-texting campaign. He sees first hand the damaging and sometimes tragic results. But, still sees people shrugging it off as something that is doable at any speed.
When our drivers get back on the course they get a passenger. Lt. Carl Minden of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office. In the back seat, his job is to verbally make sure our drivers maintain 40 to 45 MPH this time around.
Soon after they hit the gas we began sending texts.
It proved to be difficult, the faster speeds victimized cones, rattled a few nerves and unsettled our drivers.
"'You are shaking right now.' 'Yeah I am, that was scary.'" said Samantha Rezanoff as she rolled to a stop.
Lashae Miller pulled up after her 40 to 45 MPH lap.
"No. I cant do it. I could not do it at all. No, that was dangerous.Yes I would have hit someone or killed myself," said Miller
Even when our drivers gave up returning my texts, they still had trouble. The beeping or dinging phone was a clear distraction.
"People say 'I can text and drive,' no, no they can't. You can only pay attention to one or the other. You can't do both at the same time," said Gary Green.
Even glancing at the phone was a deadly distraction.
"What if you come across something or a child runs out in the road? A split second is all it takes," said driver Chris Snodgrass.
Green summed up the concern all drivers, young and old, need to keep in mind.
"Using the hands, the mind, using the eyes all at the same time. That's a complex function, that in a very very brief moment of time, somebody can get killed," he said.
It is against the law in Arkansas to text and drive. Laws are on the books and getting tougher every year.
They are not there because someone wants to keep you from communicating with anyone while you're traveling.
They just want to make sure you get to where you're going, without getting hurt or hurting anyone else.
