The following was written by Sgt. Bob Sheffield of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. It is cross-posted, courtesy of The Tennessean. Sgt. Sheffield is supervisor of the MNPD's traffic unit. From everyone at DOT, "Thank you, Sgt. Sheffield!"
It is an alarming safety hazard that is becoming increasingly common on the streets of our city, state and nation. Chances are you have seen it first hand. The motorist who you believe may be drugged or drunk due to weaving and an erratic speed is instead preoccupied on a cell phone device sending or reading text messages.
This distracted driver is putting not only themselves, but you, me and our families at unnecessary risk, so much so that the Tennessee legislature has made texting while driving illegal in Tennessee. Our police department is taking new steps to enforce this law as part of our continuing efforts to prevent crashes, reduce injuries and save lives.
Texting while driving is a very dangerous practice exhibited by young drivers, college students and persons in their 50s and beyond, despite strong admonitions against it by parents, educators, law enforcement and celebrities like Oprah Winfrey. It truly is the modern day distraction from the roadway.
In 2010, there were 26 fatality crashes caused by "failure to maintain lane" or "running off the road."
Although we cannot say definitively that these crashes involved distracted driving, it is likely that many of them did. These 26 crashes accounted for 37 percent of all fatalities in Davidson County last year. Nationwide, 5,474 persons died in crashes involving driver distraction. That is why the effort to stop texting while driving is such a big deal.
In an effort to increase Nashvillians' awareness of Tennessee's No Texting While Driving statute, Officer Burl Johnson and Sergeant Mark Denton developed an innovative enforcement strategy that we unveiled last month. An officer riding as a passenger in an unmarked police SUV is specifically looking for texting drivers while traveling Nashville's major thoroughfares. We are also checking those roadways and intersections that have higher incidents of collisions. This initiative was not designed to expand "Big Brother's" role in society, but rather to address a dangerous behavior that is becoming more common and hopefully save some lives in the process. We expect to conduct this special enforcement initiative on random days, although Nashville police officers throughout the city are on alert for distracted drivers at all hours.
The next time you are behind the wheel in Nashville and you feel the urge to read or send a text message, please wait until you get to your destination or safely pull into a parking lot and stop. Please pass this advice along to your family. Heeding it will significantly decrease your chances of being at fault in a collision.
Hello, I am a mother of 3 beautiful young drivers. I put about 25,000 miles on my own car each year. The number of deaths and injuries each day from phone related distracted driving terrifies me. So, I found a partner who knows how to make apps. together, we put together an app that only costs $1.89 and so far is available for the Droid (the most popular phone for the under 25 set). I will donate any profit I may make to organizations that are working hard to try to get the message out to Focus On the Road. the app is called everyonetexts, and enables users to set phones to reply, automatically to incoming texts and calls to send out either standard or custom messages. So the user satisfies that "must respond right now" addiction, and continues to focus on the road. I am not in marketing,never done anything like this before, don't have any great "who do you know" connections, but did put $5000 of my own money into getting a totally affordable app out there to save someone's beloved family member. This issue is so avoidable if drivers can satisfy their instant reply drive, the sender gets the instant message back and realizes the receiver is driving, and the driver can stay focused on the road. all these tragedies every day are brought on by voluntary behavior. (unless instant reply has now become an addiction).
the website is everyonetexts. com, and it fits right into the DOT dedication to make our roads safer by controlling a totally optional behavior on the part of drivers. Please consider my idea for teen focused groups to buy it in bulk and distribute it directly or as a fund raiser (they could sell it for, say, $3.99 and raise money for their organization.
Its the best way I could think of to make my contribution count the most to getting the roads to be safer for all of us.
Karen, worried mom and concerned driver
Wilmette, IL
thanks for reading this. If you have any ideas how to get this out to people, I would really appreciate the help.
Posted by: Karen Adelson | February 06, 2011 at 01:57 PM
Hello! Just want to say thank you for this interesting article! =) Peace, Joy.
Posted by: Avevearia | January 26, 2012 at 03:48 AM