New Haven Register
CHESHIRE — A 2008 graduate of Cheshire High School died on Christmas Eve in a snowboarding accident at Killington Resort in Vermont.
Alex Westphal, 20, suffered massive internal injuries when he collided with an immovable object, probably a pole or tree, according to his father, Ryan Westphal.
Ryan, wife Ann and Alex Westphal had traveled to Vermont Wednesday morning for a Christmas vacation. They had many fond memories of a ski vacation 15 years earlier that they wanted to re-create, Ryan said. Alex Westphal’s parents brought him to Killington, then left to check into the hotel and go cross-country skiing while Alex snowboarded.
At 11:44 a.m., on his first or second run of the day, Alex Westphal sent his parents a photo he took with his cell phone from the top of the mountain.
“We’re a family that has a lot of contact. It was his way of having us share in that moment at the top of the mountain,” Ryan Westphal said Sunday. “Being up there, being out in nature, he was just incredibly happy.”
At 12:01 p.m., a volunteer ski patrolman found Alex Westphal and started CPR. Ryan Westphal said the CPR continued for about 40 minutes as his son was taken to the hospital, but Alex had died on the mountain.
State troopers found Ryan and Ann Westphal, who were cross-country skiing, and told them what had happened. The reality of the situation didn’t sink in until they went to the hospital and saw their son, said Ryan Westphal. On Christmas day, the couple went to the site of the accident to piece together what had transpired. Ryan Westphal believed it happened quickly, and nothing could have been done to save Alex.
After returning to Cheshire, the Westphals were contacted by one of Alex’s college fraternity brothers. Word of Alex’s accident was spreading, and a Facebook page dedicated to his memory had been created. By late Sunday, nearly 650 people had joined.
“It’s really mind-blowing. People from all different aspects of his life ... are chiming in and saying something nice about him,” said Ryan Westphal. “It’s really helpful in a really difficult time to know that so many people felt that his life mattered.”
Alex Westphal’s funeral will be held this week in Iowa, but his parents are planning a memorial service in Connecticut in the near future. Ryan Westphal said they had initially planned to have a few of his close friends attend, but they’ve been “just blown away” by the “outpouring of people expressing their feelings for him.”
Alex Westphal was in his sophomore year at Hofstra University, but planned to transfer to the SAE Institute in New York City in January to pursue an audio technology degree. Alex’s father said he’d been majoring in business at Hofstra, but his true passion was music.
Alex Westphal was born in South Dakota, and his family moved around to Nashville, Tenn., and Portland, Ore.. before settling in Cheshire in 2000, said Ryan Westphal.
At Cheshire High School, Alex Westphal played basketball, baseball and football, according to his father. His baseball coach, Bill Mrowka, remembered him as very athletic and easy-going. Alex Westphal didn’t let things bother him, but “just kind of rolled with it,” Mrowka said.
Alex Westphal joined the football team senior year.
“He was a great kid,” said Mark Ecke, football coach and a school resource officer at the high school. “A pretty talented athlete, but bigger than that. He came out, he got injured for us, then he stuck with it. He was just a great kid — great kid to be around, positive attitude, always had a smile on his face.”
Ryan Westphal said his son also loved animals, and fostered more than 250 kittens and puppies. Alex Westphal loved music, and would DJ and make his own music. He also did modeling in New York City, and appeared in a photo shoot in Cosmopolitan magazine.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Teen faces charge for August crash that killed Lincoln girl
From JournalStar.com:
Prosecutors have charged a 16-year-old boy with motor vehicle homicide for an August crash in south Lincoln that took the life of a 16-year-old girl.
Taylor Mortensen, a junior at Lincoln Southeast High School, went to court last week for the first time on the misdemeanor. He is set to return in February.
Police say Mortensen's Monte Carlo T-boned Emily Johnson's Honda Accord on Aug. 22 as she drove across Pine Lake Road after stopping for a stop sign on 34th Street.
Rescue workers whisked both of the young drivers to the hospital, where Johnson, a junior at Southwest High School, died.
In the days that followed, police went to Mortensen's home Aug. 27 with a search warrant, snapped pictures of his Samsung cell phone and left with it. Police haven't said publicly what, if anything, they found on it.
Months passed with no court action until the Lancaster County Attorney's office quietly filed the charge in adult court on Dec. 16.
Mortensen can ask that the case be transferred to juvenile court because of his age, but he is not eligible for diversion because the charge is not among those that can be diverted.
By state law, motor vehicle homicide occurs when a person "causes the death of another unintentionally while engaged in the operation of a motor vehicle in violation of the law of the State of Nebraska or in violation of any city or village ordinance..."
In the complaint, Deputy County Attorney Eric Miller alleged Mortensen was driving over the speed limit or driving "carelessly or without due caution."
Neither Miller nor others in the office returned messages seeking comment.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Joe Kelly said last month that when he heard of the crash he wondered, as others did, if Mortensen had been speeding or on a cell phone.
At that time he said police were still working to determine what had happened.
Prosecutors have charged a 16-year-old boy with motor vehicle homicide for an August crash in south Lincoln that took the life of a 16-year-old girl.
Taylor Mortensen, a junior at Lincoln Southeast High School, went to court last week for the first time on the misdemeanor. He is set to return in February.
Police say Mortensen's Monte Carlo T-boned Emily Johnson's Honda Accord on Aug. 22 as she drove across Pine Lake Road after stopping for a stop sign on 34th Street.
Rescue workers whisked both of the young drivers to the hospital, where Johnson, a junior at Southwest High School, died.
In the days that followed, police went to Mortensen's home Aug. 27 with a search warrant, snapped pictures of his Samsung cell phone and left with it. Police haven't said publicly what, if anything, they found on it.
Months passed with no court action until the Lancaster County Attorney's office quietly filed the charge in adult court on Dec. 16.
Mortensen can ask that the case be transferred to juvenile court because of his age, but he is not eligible for diversion because the charge is not among those that can be diverted.
By state law, motor vehicle homicide occurs when a person "causes the death of another unintentionally while engaged in the operation of a motor vehicle in violation of the law of the State of Nebraska or in violation of any city or village ordinance..."
In the complaint, Deputy County Attorney Eric Miller alleged Mortensen was driving over the speed limit or driving "carelessly or without due caution."
Neither Miller nor others in the office returned messages seeking comment.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Joe Kelly said last month that when he heard of the crash he wondered, as others did, if Mortensen had been speeding or on a cell phone.
At that time he said police were still working to determine what had happened.
Texting drivers more likely to crash
From Salt Lake Tribune:
A new study by University of Utah psychologists finds that drivers who send and receive text messages drive more erratically and are six times more likely to crash than drivers who aren't texting.
Researchers found that drivers must "switch" all their attention away from the road when they are composing or reading text messages. Consequently, this activity is far riskier than talking to a passenger and 50 percent more risky than conversing on a cell phone, which past U. research has found also impairs driving ability.
"We show that mechanisms involved in texting and talking are very different in terms of attention. If someone is talking on the phone, they are dividing attention between talking and driving," said Frank Drews, an associate professor of psychology who is lead author in the study published in the current edition of the journal Human Factors . "In text messaging, it is an all-or-nothing process. If you are texting, you are not paying attention to driving. You are basically driving blind."
At least 19 states, including Utah, and many municipalities have banned texting behind the wheel, while none has completely banned talking on the phone.
Under the leadership of Drews and colleague David Strayer, a co-author on the new study, the U. has become a leading center for experiments on distracted driving. Strayer adapted a three-screen driving simulator to allow behavioral scientists to document reaction times, trailing distances and other driving behaviors in conjunction with nondriving tasks.
Distracted driving accounts for 6,000 fatalities a year, Drews said, and cell phones are the most common distraction in a growing array of on-board electronics, like entertainment and GPS systems and laptops.
Public-safety advocates say the U. experiments inform public policy discussions and help quantify the real costs of distracted driving.
"We can take this data, combine it with prevalence information and estimate how many crashes are caused by text messaging. Legislators need to know that stuff," said David Teater, senior director for transportation safety initiatives at the National Safety Council.
The federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses street observations made in daylight and good weather to estimate the prevalence of cell phone use behind the wheel. These estimates cannot distinguish between those who are dialing a call, texting, or e-mailing, but they figure 11 percent of the driving public is using a cell phone at any given time. A small minority was seen manipulating the keys, leading observers to estimate that one in 100 motorists at this moment is jabbing phone buttons rather than looking at the road, Teater said.
The U. researchers selected 20 students, ages 19 to 23, to participate in the latest study as drivers, and 20 friends to engage in a texted conversation with the drivers as they piloted the simulator. Nearly all the participants, who used their own phones for the experiments, said they text while driving more than once a week.
"We wanted to mimic actual texting, which is something you do with someone you know," Drews said. "We gave them the task to coordinate evening activities. We wanted them to plan the evening using text messaging, something very typical."
Researchers found the texting drivers' reactions times slowed by 30 percent (versus nine percent for those talking on a phone). The distance from the car in front of them was more varied, they inadvertently changed lanes, and sometimes rammed cars in front of them. Six of the seven collisions that occurred during the study involved a texter.
While more states are banning texting while driving, Teaters suspects texting is "escalating at a dramatic rate," and not just among young drivers. Even the most well-meaning people find the message tone an irresistible cue to pick up the phone.
"We believe there is an addictive quality to this," he said. "It's almost a Pavlovian response."
A new study by University of Utah psychologists finds that drivers who send and receive text messages drive more erratically and are six times more likely to crash than drivers who aren't texting.
Researchers found that drivers must "switch" all their attention away from the road when they are composing or reading text messages. Consequently, this activity is far riskier than talking to a passenger and 50 percent more risky than conversing on a cell phone, which past U. research has found also impairs driving ability.
"We show that mechanisms involved in texting and talking are very different in terms of attention. If someone is talking on the phone, they are dividing attention between talking and driving," said Frank Drews, an associate professor of psychology who is lead author in the study published in the current edition of the journal Human Factors . "In text messaging, it is an all-or-nothing process. If you are texting, you are not paying attention to driving. You are basically driving blind."
At least 19 states, including Utah, and many municipalities have banned texting behind the wheel, while none has completely banned talking on the phone.
Under the leadership of Drews and colleague David Strayer, a co-author on the new study, the U. has become a leading center for experiments on distracted driving. Strayer adapted a three-screen driving simulator to allow behavioral scientists to document reaction times, trailing distances and other driving behaviors in conjunction with nondriving tasks.
Distracted driving accounts for 6,000 fatalities a year, Drews said, and cell phones are the most common distraction in a growing array of on-board electronics, like entertainment and GPS systems and laptops.
Public-safety advocates say the U. experiments inform public policy discussions and help quantify the real costs of distracted driving.
"We can take this data, combine it with prevalence information and estimate how many crashes are caused by text messaging. Legislators need to know that stuff," said David Teater, senior director for transportation safety initiatives at the National Safety Council.
The federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses street observations made in daylight and good weather to estimate the prevalence of cell phone use behind the wheel. These estimates cannot distinguish between those who are dialing a call, texting, or e-mailing, but they figure 11 percent of the driving public is using a cell phone at any given time. A small minority was seen manipulating the keys, leading observers to estimate that one in 100 motorists at this moment is jabbing phone buttons rather than looking at the road, Teater said.
The U. researchers selected 20 students, ages 19 to 23, to participate in the latest study as drivers, and 20 friends to engage in a texted conversation with the drivers as they piloted the simulator. Nearly all the participants, who used their own phones for the experiments, said they text while driving more than once a week.
"We wanted to mimic actual texting, which is something you do with someone you know," Drews said. "We gave them the task to coordinate evening activities. We wanted them to plan the evening using text messaging, something very typical."
Researchers found the texting drivers' reactions times slowed by 30 percent (versus nine percent for those talking on a phone). The distance from the car in front of them was more varied, they inadvertently changed lanes, and sometimes rammed cars in front of them. Six of the seven collisions that occurred during the study involved a texter.
While more states are banning texting while driving, Teaters suspects texting is "escalating at a dramatic rate," and not just among young drivers. Even the most well-meaning people find the message tone an irresistible cue to pick up the phone.
"We believe there is an addictive quality to this," he said. "It's almost a Pavlovian response."
Monday, December 21, 2009
Man on sidewalk struck by van; cops think driver distracted by cell phone
From BND.com:
A man , 51, is in critical condition after getting struck by a van while standing on a sidewalk in North St. Louis.
The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the 8300 block of Halls Ferry Road.
Police think the driver, 23, bent down to pick up a cell phone and lost control of the vehicle. She was ticketed for careless and imprudent driving and could be facing more charges.
A man , 51, is in critical condition after getting struck by a van while standing on a sidewalk in North St. Louis.
The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the 8300 block of Halls Ferry Road.
Police think the driver, 23, bent down to pick up a cell phone and lost control of the vehicle. She was ticketed for careless and imprudent driving and could be facing more charges.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Family seeks texting ban on roads
From HCNONLINE.com:
The family of a man who died when his motorcycle was struck by the vehicle of a driver reading a cell phone text message wants texting while driving to be outlawed in Texas.
Recent legislation prohibits any use of cell phones in school zones throughout Texas and for drivers under 17 with restricted licenses. Efforts to ban or reduce any use of cell phones while driving, however, withered in various committees of the Texas Legislature last session.
Jonathan David Porter, 22, of New Caney, was sentenced in the 435th state District Court of Judge Michael Seiler to 90 days in the Montgomery County Jail after pleading guilty Thursday to the felony charges of criminally negligent homicide and failure to stop and render aid. Porter left the scene of a fatal wreck March 16 that killed Douglas Allen Jr., of Splendora.
Allen was attempting a left turn in front of the Porter Sports Bar on Loop 494 around 8 p.m. when the motorcycle was struck from behind by a 2006 Honda sedan driven by Porter. The impact pushed Allen’s 2002 Harley-Davidson motorcycle into oncoming traffic.
Allen, whose wife worked at the sports bar, then was hit by a Chevy Tahoe.
Just before he hit Allen’s motorcycle, Porter was reading a text message that had come in on his cell phone, which he had placed on the passenger seat, said Tay Bond, Porter’s attorney.
“When someone sent him a text message he heard come in on his phone ... he momentarily looked at his phone to discern what it was,” Bond said. “When he looked up, Mr. Allen had slowed to turn left, with his blinker on.”
Porter was not texting when the accident occurred, Bond said.
“He was not putting in input into his phone to send a text message,” he said. “This was a tragic accident. If Mr. Porter had stayed on the scene, he would not have put himself in the position he was in.”
Porter fled the scene after hitting Allen’s motorcycle, and he abandoned his vehicle about a mile past the wreck scene, fleeing on foot into the woods, said Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt, who prosecuted the case.
He turned himself in to police the next day, Bond said.
“When he contacted his father, his father said, ‘When I get back into town, we are going immediately to the police,’” he said. “Mr. Porter agreed. That’s exactly what they did the next day, without benefit of an attorney.”
While Allen’s family doesn’t believe Porter was punished enough, they now want to concentrate their efforts on banning texting while driving through the state, said Connie Houchin, a longtime close friend of the family who is staying with Betty Allen, Douglas Allen’s mother.
“We know if it’s happened to us, it’s happened to others,” she said. “Last week, I saw two accidents that nearly happened in a parking lot because the drivers were texting.”
Houchin’s daughter lives in California, she said, which has a comprehensive ban on the use of handheld cell phones while driving. A ban on text messaging while driving goes into effect there Jan. 1.
California is one of six states, along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, that prohibit all drivers from talking on handheld devices while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (ghsa.org). Nineteen states, the District of Columbia and Guam ban text messaging for all drivers.
In addition to novice drivers, Texas also prohibits school bus drivers from all use of cell phones when students are riding.
Montgomery County legislators did not return calls seeking comment on whether they believe the Legislature should pass a statewide ban on text messaging.
But several cities in Texas, including Austin, have passed their own bans on texting while driving within city limits. It’s an issue the city of Conroe could take a look at sometime in the future, Mayor Webb Melder said.
“It’s probably a subject that will wind up crossing our paths,” he said. “Sooner or later, things come to our attention, like smoking or bad dogs.”
Porter could have faced up to 10 years in prison for the failure to stop and render aid charge, and up to two years in state jail for the charge of criminally negligent homicide, according to the Texas Penal Code.
Prosecutors had asked that Porter receive some prison time, Prewitt said.
“We felt it was the type of case that warrants incarceration,” he said. “That’s the decision the judge made, and we will certainly abide by it.”
Porter also must undergo a motorcycle awareness course and notify others who attend the course about the details of the wreck and Allen’s death, Prewitt said.
In addition to the 90 days in the Montgomery County Jail, which he is now serving, Porter received five years’ probation for criminally negligent homicide and 10 years’ probation for failure to stop and render aid – the longest period of probation the judge could give him for that charge, Bond said.
“My feeling is that the court weighed the decision of the Porter family to make Jonathan available to the police the next morning, to admit what he had done, to never deny the circumstances of the accident and to accept the responsibility for it by pleading guilty,” Bond said.
No witnesses to the accident reported any erratic driving by Porter, he said.
“The most important issue in the case is the Porter family feels extremely bad for the Allen family. Certainly the Allen family is having to deal with a lot more,” he said.
“This is a good lesson about how a moment’s distraction can have horrible, lifelong consequences.”
Something needs to be done in Texas about texting while driving, Houchin said, and it’s the Allen family’s hope that something will be done soon.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she said, “and maybe this is the reason.”
The family of a man who died when his motorcycle was struck by the vehicle of a driver reading a cell phone text message wants texting while driving to be outlawed in Texas.
Recent legislation prohibits any use of cell phones in school zones throughout Texas and for drivers under 17 with restricted licenses. Efforts to ban or reduce any use of cell phones while driving, however, withered in various committees of the Texas Legislature last session.
Jonathan David Porter, 22, of New Caney, was sentenced in the 435th state District Court of Judge Michael Seiler to 90 days in the Montgomery County Jail after pleading guilty Thursday to the felony charges of criminally negligent homicide and failure to stop and render aid. Porter left the scene of a fatal wreck March 16 that killed Douglas Allen Jr., of Splendora.
Allen was attempting a left turn in front of the Porter Sports Bar on Loop 494 around 8 p.m. when the motorcycle was struck from behind by a 2006 Honda sedan driven by Porter. The impact pushed Allen’s 2002 Harley-Davidson motorcycle into oncoming traffic.
Allen, whose wife worked at the sports bar, then was hit by a Chevy Tahoe.
Just before he hit Allen’s motorcycle, Porter was reading a text message that had come in on his cell phone, which he had placed on the passenger seat, said Tay Bond, Porter’s attorney.
“When someone sent him a text message he heard come in on his phone ... he momentarily looked at his phone to discern what it was,” Bond said. “When he looked up, Mr. Allen had slowed to turn left, with his blinker on.”
Porter was not texting when the accident occurred, Bond said.
“He was not putting in input into his phone to send a text message,” he said. “This was a tragic accident. If Mr. Porter had stayed on the scene, he would not have put himself in the position he was in.”
Porter fled the scene after hitting Allen’s motorcycle, and he abandoned his vehicle about a mile past the wreck scene, fleeing on foot into the woods, said Assistant District Attorney Jim Prewitt, who prosecuted the case.
He turned himself in to police the next day, Bond said.
“When he contacted his father, his father said, ‘When I get back into town, we are going immediately to the police,’” he said. “Mr. Porter agreed. That’s exactly what they did the next day, without benefit of an attorney.”
While Allen’s family doesn’t believe Porter was punished enough, they now want to concentrate their efforts on banning texting while driving through the state, said Connie Houchin, a longtime close friend of the family who is staying with Betty Allen, Douglas Allen’s mother.
“We know if it’s happened to us, it’s happened to others,” she said. “Last week, I saw two accidents that nearly happened in a parking lot because the drivers were texting.”
Houchin’s daughter lives in California, she said, which has a comprehensive ban on the use of handheld cell phones while driving. A ban on text messaging while driving goes into effect there Jan. 1.
California is one of six states, along with the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, that prohibit all drivers from talking on handheld devices while driving, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (ghsa.org). Nineteen states, the District of Columbia and Guam ban text messaging for all drivers.
In addition to novice drivers, Texas also prohibits school bus drivers from all use of cell phones when students are riding.
Montgomery County legislators did not return calls seeking comment on whether they believe the Legislature should pass a statewide ban on text messaging.
But several cities in Texas, including Austin, have passed their own bans on texting while driving within city limits. It’s an issue the city of Conroe could take a look at sometime in the future, Mayor Webb Melder said.
“It’s probably a subject that will wind up crossing our paths,” he said. “Sooner or later, things come to our attention, like smoking or bad dogs.”
Porter could have faced up to 10 years in prison for the failure to stop and render aid charge, and up to two years in state jail for the charge of criminally negligent homicide, according to the Texas Penal Code.
Prosecutors had asked that Porter receive some prison time, Prewitt said.
“We felt it was the type of case that warrants incarceration,” he said. “That’s the decision the judge made, and we will certainly abide by it.”
Porter also must undergo a motorcycle awareness course and notify others who attend the course about the details of the wreck and Allen’s death, Prewitt said.
In addition to the 90 days in the Montgomery County Jail, which he is now serving, Porter received five years’ probation for criminally negligent homicide and 10 years’ probation for failure to stop and render aid – the longest period of probation the judge could give him for that charge, Bond said.
“My feeling is that the court weighed the decision of the Porter family to make Jonathan available to the police the next morning, to admit what he had done, to never deny the circumstances of the accident and to accept the responsibility for it by pleading guilty,” Bond said.
No witnesses to the accident reported any erratic driving by Porter, he said.
“The most important issue in the case is the Porter family feels extremely bad for the Allen family. Certainly the Allen family is having to deal with a lot more,” he said.
“This is a good lesson about how a moment’s distraction can have horrible, lifelong consequences.”
Something needs to be done in Texas about texting while driving, Houchin said, and it’s the Allen family’s hope that something will be done soon.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she said, “and maybe this is the reason.”
Crash has Vaca couple issuing call for caution
From TheReport.com
It was over in a matter of seconds, but the crash that totaled their 18-year-old grandson's car keeps playing over and over in the minds of Vacaville couple Sheila and Carnus Ratliff.
And not just because the entire thing was captured on a surveillance camera at their home.
The recent incident happened when a driver traveling north on Davis Street rammed his black pickup truck into the back of a Toyota Corolla, driven by the Ratliff's grandson. The car then barreled toward three teens walking on the sidewalk, pushing one of them.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
It's what the Ratliffs say the driver said afterward that haunts them.
They say he admitted he was looking at his cell phone and didn't even have time to react before he hit the car, which was stopped to let the pedestrians pass before turning into the Ratliff's driveway.
"It was like a cannon going off," said Sheila Ratliff. "It was a miracle that no one was hurt."
Seeing vehicles speed by their home on Davis Street is not a new thing for the Ratliffs, who have lived in the house for 33 years.
"It doesn't matter which direction they're going, we've had several accidents," said Carnus Ratliff. "The road is so long and straight, it's easy for them to speed."
If an accident doesn't occur, drivers are cussing at them or flipping them off, just as they pull into their own driveway.
"I've seen people drive on the wrong side of the road just to pass us," Sheila said. "Wemoved here when we were surrounded by country property and we don't want to move."
Each time she looks at the surveillance video, Sheila is shocked.
"Slow down and don't talk on your cell phone," she said. "This was preventable."
Vacaville Traffic Sgt. Terry Cates said even though drivers were warned 18 months in advance of a new law that passed in July 2008 -- which prohibits people from driving a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking -- they're still talking on their phones.
"We see it everyday," he said. "It's hard not to go a block without seeing someone using their cell phone."
Cates said more than 2,000 citations have been issued just for cell phone use, but there is more to it than just handing out tickets.
"It's our goal to find a balance and combine the enforcement with education," he said.
Cates said that so far, only minor wrecks have occurred as a result of someone using a cell phone.
"We have had a few, but, thankfully, they've been minor accidents," he said. "I wouldn't say using a cell phone is the cause of traffic accidents, but it's definitely a contributing factor."
As for the Ratliffs, they want people to pay attention.
"If we save one life because someone didn't use their cell phone, then this is worth it," Sheila said.
It was over in a matter of seconds, but the crash that totaled their 18-year-old grandson's car keeps playing over and over in the minds of Vacaville couple Sheila and Carnus Ratliff.
And not just because the entire thing was captured on a surveillance camera at their home.
The recent incident happened when a driver traveling north on Davis Street rammed his black pickup truck into the back of a Toyota Corolla, driven by the Ratliff's grandson. The car then barreled toward three teens walking on the sidewalk, pushing one of them.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
It's what the Ratliffs say the driver said afterward that haunts them.
They say he admitted he was looking at his cell phone and didn't even have time to react before he hit the car, which was stopped to let the pedestrians pass before turning into the Ratliff's driveway.
"It was like a cannon going off," said Sheila Ratliff. "It was a miracle that no one was hurt."
Seeing vehicles speed by their home on Davis Street is not a new thing for the Ratliffs, who have lived in the house for 33 years.
"It doesn't matter which direction they're going, we've had several accidents," said Carnus Ratliff. "The road is so long and straight, it's easy for them to speed."
If an accident doesn't occur, drivers are cussing at them or flipping them off, just as they pull into their own driveway.
"I've seen people drive on the wrong side of the road just to pass us," Sheila said. "Wemoved here when we were surrounded by country property and we don't want to move."
Each time she looks at the surveillance video, Sheila is shocked.
"Slow down and don't talk on your cell phone," she said. "This was preventable."
Vacaville Traffic Sgt. Terry Cates said even though drivers were warned 18 months in advance of a new law that passed in July 2008 -- which prohibits people from driving a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking -- they're still talking on their phones.
"We see it everyday," he said. "It's hard not to go a block without seeing someone using their cell phone."
Cates said more than 2,000 citations have been issued just for cell phone use, but there is more to it than just handing out tickets.
"It's our goal to find a balance and combine the enforcement with education," he said.
Cates said that so far, only minor wrecks have occurred as a result of someone using a cell phone.
"We have had a few, but, thankfully, they've been minor accidents," he said. "I wouldn't say using a cell phone is the cause of traffic accidents, but it's definitely a contributing factor."
As for the Ratliffs, they want people to pay attention.
"If we save one life because someone didn't use their cell phone, then this is worth it," Sheila said.
Teen talking on cell phone dies in crash
From ktvb.com:
Posted on December 5, 2009 at 8:51 PM
NORTH SPOKANE COUNTY -- A 16-year-old girl from Nine Mile is dead after losing control of her car in north Spokane County Friday night.
Investigators say she was on her cell phone when she hit an icy spot, rolled her Jeep, and hit a tree around the 4500 block of West Monroe Road.
The Spokane County's Sheriff's Office says the girl had only had her license for about three weeks.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Woman Admits Cell Phone Led To Fatal Crash
From WLWT.com:
CINCINNATI -- A Bethel woman admitted Monday that she killed a man in an Anderson Township car crash while she looked for her cell phone.
Katrina Kimberly pleaded guilty to one count of vehicular homicide, which carries a possible 180-day jail term.Her sentencing was scheduled for next month, and police cited her Saturday on an additional charge of driving under a suspended sentence.Police said Kimberly cross the center lane July 3 on westbound Kellogg Avenue, and her car collided head-on with a vehicle driven by 53-year-old Arthur Stines.The Walnut Hills man was killed and his brother injured in the crash, which also involved a third car that was unable to avoid the wreck.Kimberly admitted in court that she had bent down to pick up her cell phone, which had fallen to the floor.
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5th graders working to stop drivers from using cell phones
From waff.com:
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - "Don't text and drive" is the message from a 5th grade robotics class hoping to encourage drivers to turn off their cell phone before getting behind the wheel.
Using a cell phone while driving quadruples the risk of having an accident, and 35 percent of drivers polled say they feel unsafe on the roads because of others using their cell phones.
A group of kids not quite ready to hit the road said it's time drivers take responsibility.
The 5th graders from Jones Valley Elementary School's Wise Drive Robotics Class asked Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle to sign a petition to make drivers aware of cell phone dangers.
"Americans need to acknowledge that text messaging and cell phone use is unsafe," said robotics sponsor Kristy Dunn.
Dunn said her students chose the topic of cell phone dangers after hearing of bad accidents involving their use on the road. She said she hopes this campaign will set a good example.
"I've got a 13-year-old he's texting all the time," she said. "I don't want him to be 16 and think it's okay to text while he's driving. It's just too dangerous."
Dunn's students have spent countless hours researching the statistics, even partnering with a company in Canada that has come up with a device that will actually stop a cell phone from working in a driver's hands.
"It acts like a cell phone tower," said Jones valley student William Joiner. "It says to cell signals, 'Come to me,' and it blocks it."
That lessens the chances of being involved in a serious accident. Wyatt Dunn isn't old enough to drive, but he sees the dangers he'll face soon.
"Your talking on the cell phone, parent isn't noticing [other motorists] and you are like, 'Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk,'" he said. "You have the same reaction time as a 70-year-old."
Two students will attend Thursday's Alabama Distracted Driving Summit. They'll take with them the mayor's proclamation and research in hopes legislators will consider changing cell phone laws in Alabama.
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