Distracted Driving Campaign

This Creating Community column appeared in the September 3, 2008 Durango Herald. San Juan Basin Health contributes a column the first Wednesday of every month.

When you wave to your chil­dren as they board the school bus, you expect they’ll ar­rive safely.
  You expect (demand) that the bus driver will be fully atten­tive to his or her job. In fact, there are strict rules to prevent any distrac­tions including no food, drink, music or phones.
  You get in your car and along the way to work talk on your cell phone, groom your­self, read the morning news, text-message, change radio sta­tions, check out a new subdivi­sion and/or look in the back­seat for something. Whether you do one or all (if you’re particularly prone to multi­tasking), you’re not fully atten­tive to your work at hand – driving. Just because the bus driver is paid and we’re not doesn’t mean driving isn’t a job. It’s actually a fairly com­plex, multi-tasking act by itself. We all have a role in getting to where we’re going safely, in protecting the “baby on board,” and in preventing needless crashes and loss of human (and animal) life.
  The Injury Prevention Coalition of San Juan Basin Health Department is begin­ning a community- education campaign to reduce distracted driving. Statistics show as many as 70 percent of crashes are caused by distracted dri­ving. Locally, it is second only to wildlife accidents in caus­ing crashes. How many of those might be prevented with more attentive driving?
  “Doing this job for 21 years,” says Colorado State Pa­trol Capt. Martin Petrick, “I’ve seen too many crashes where people just don’t plan ahead so they speed, tailgate and simply don’t pay attention. People get hurt, and there’s a huge eco­nomic impact.” And it’s not just young peo­ple. Petrick said that drivers older than 30 are perhaps the biggest offenders of distracted driving.
  As an insurance agent, Tom Tucker knows the economic costs of accidents resulting from distracted driving. He’s also aware of the human cost.
  Recently, his daughter-in-law was driving with her three chil­dren when she reached down to get an item from her make­up bag – and rolled one and half times, totaling the car.Fortunately, no one was hurt. As a result of the acci­dent, Tucker, a member of the coalition, has become more in­volved in this education cam­paign.
  He says, “driving from Bay­field everyday, I see so many people jabbering on their cell phones, with newspapers. I see cars swerving and near crashes.” Tucker thinks it may take a tragic wake-up call (or near miss) for individuals to change behavior. Petrick believes reminding motorists that driving is a privi­lege and not a right could help. Many individuals, and some states, see legislation as the so­lution. Whether or not laws exist, just about everyone believes ed­ucation is still key along with a change in attitude.
  We all expect school-bus dri­vers to be attentive and make driving safely their number one priority. Why should we expect less from each other and most importantly, of ourselves?
  Call 247- 5702, ext. 228 if you’d like a presentation for your group, school, or work­place.
 

For more information, visit Teensafedriver.com;americas­afedriver. org; www.arp.org/families/driver_safety.
  Jane Looney is the communications director with the San Juan Basin Health Department.