Tiffany DeGroft spent the last moments of her life last October swapping text messages with her boyfriend as she drove down Braddock Road in Centreville, Va., the police said. His last text message read: "Why the (expletive) aren't you answering me now?"
About that moment, the road curved right, and DeGroft's 2002 Jaguar went straight. The car crossed the center line and went into the oncoming lane. DeGroft apparently looked up but hit the brakes too late, plowing through trees, hitting a picket fence and smashing into a shed. Investigators said a piece of fence shattered the window and killed her.
"We found the phone on the floorboard in the open position," said James Banachoski, a Fairfax County detective who handles investigations of fatal traffic accidents. "I suspect she was actually reading the text."
"Distracted driving" is becoming a cause celebre, with more states banning texting while driving and some legislators pondering whether to bar cell phone use by drivers outright. The District of Columbia and six states require hands-free devices. Texting has been banned in the District and 17 states, including New Hampshire, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he will convene a meeting Sept. 30 to formulate "concrete steps . . . to make drivers think twice about taking their eyes off the road for any reason."
LaHood's biggest challenge will be to find a way to enforce unpopular restrictions on drivers in love with their cell phones. One survey found that eight in 10 drivers talk on their phones while behind the wheel. LaHood is counting on frightening numbers - cell phone use is a factor in an estimated 342,000 auto accident injuries and costs $43 billion each year in property damage, lost wages, medical bills and loss of life - to help win support.
"The public is sick and tired of people being distracted and causing accidents," he said last week.
Making it stick
Little more than a generation ago, cigarettes and push-button radios were just about all drivers had to tear their eyes from the road. Now cell phones, coffee cups, CDs, GPS devices and televisions compete for the attention of people behind the wheel.
Text messaging and cell phones have gotten most of the attention lately, and it might take LaHood's federal influence to wean the nation from them. Almost 90 percent of Americans own cell phones. The National Safety Council has estimated that 100 million drivers use cell phones, and another study concluded that 1 million people are chatting behind the wheel at any time.
Few states were willing to reduce to .08 the blood-alcohol level that defines drunken driving until their federal highway funds were threatened, and Congress might need to wield that stick again if unpopular restrictions are sought on cell phone use. New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, has introduced a bill to withhold 25 percent of federal highway funds from states each year unless they ban texting.
"Studies show (texting) is far more dangerous than talking on a phone while driving or driving while drunk," Schumer said after the bill was filed. "With this new legislation, drivers will finally be held responsible for dangerous behavior that puts the public at risk."
When states take on the issue, legislators run up against lobbyists for a lucrative industry and constituents who are wedded to their phones. For an example of the resulting compromises, look to Virginia, where a law banning drivers from texting took effect July 1.
The law makes texting a secondary offense, so an officer has to stop a driver for some other reason before writing a texting citation. In court, the driver can say he was dialing a phone call, which is legal, or using his phone's GPS function. Short of getting texting records from a phone company, which isn't allowed with a misdemeanor, an officer has no way to prove texting. If the driver loses, the fine is $20 for the first offense.
"I don't want to say (the law is) totally useless, but it allows a lot of wiggle room," Banachoski, the Virginia detective, said. "It's not much of a deterrent."
Statistically speaking
The challenge of enforcement is expected to be a central topic at LaHood's meeting next month.
"By the time police get to the scene of a crash, the evidence that cell phone use or texting was a factor almost always has disappeared," said Rae Tyson, of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The lack of effective enforcement has made the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, reluctant to support new laws.
"We're really where we were 20 years ago on drunk driving," association spokesman Jonathan Adkins said. "Let's develop an effective strategy for enforcement, and at that point we're likely to support a complete ban on cell phones, not just one on texting or requiring hands-free."
Scores of cell phone studies have been done. One concluded that the use of cell phones is as bad as driving drunk, and another said that using a hands-free device is as distracting as eating a cheeseburger. Cell phone users are up to four times more likely to be in a traffic accident, and the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis estimated in 2003 that their use was a factor in 6 percent of accidents. That translated to 636,000 crashes resulting in 12,000 serious injuries and 2,600 deaths.
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