A 32-year-old woman died in High Point, NC three days ago after crossing a median and striking a truck head-on. Police investigators are now reporting that “selfies” might have been involved.
Courtney Ann Sanford told Facebook that “The Happy Song makes me so HAPPY.” The Star reports that Ms. Sanford was also posting “selfies” to Facebook before the crash.
This is another good solid chance for the media to report the usual dodgy statistics on distracted driving, and they’re doing it. Speaking as someone who had his only major automobile accident as an adult while he was awake, alert, sober, and had both hands firmly on the steering wheel, I’m always a bit suspicious of said statistics. One could argue that Miss Sanford was alive and well while she was texting and posting selfies but succumbed to something completely different later. Until the investigators manage to show that her last Tweet was “Turfing across the median towards a truck, still thinking about Pharrell Williams #sodistracted” perhaps the lady should be given the courtesy of being presumed innocent.
You know, since our country was founded on that presumption.
In the meantime, all Americans are encouraged to hang up their phones, turn off the Candy Crush, pull the fuse from their MyFordTouch systems, place both hands at ten and two at the wheel, and stare determinedly at the bumper of the stopped car in traffic ahead. When it’s safe to do something else, we’ll text you.
I have actually tried texting while driving, on an open straight road, and I don’t believe there is anything even remotely safe about it (even if I was just answering another text by sayin ‘OK’) . When and where I did it, the only thing I could have possibly would be a deer or something popping out of the woods, but in actual traffic there are way too many things that could go wrong in such a situation. Darwinism may be used in this (and sadly many other crashes) but it’s true that people who could make this kind of mistakes could just as likely have found another distraction to kill them while driving.
What is scary is that some of these people could also be walking safely away from their slightly bent Hummer H2 or Ford Excursion, after crushing a brand new Accord coupe to bits blowing through a red light while posting a selfie…
Neither the excursion nor hummer have been made recently enough to attract the kind of people that are so entroughed into their own selves that they have to show everyone their style. On the other hand us driving those vehicles are safe from all the 3 series and accords with such people.
Both Excursions and Hummers are getting old enough to be so cheap that anyone can buy them. And soon enough everyone is posting selfies all the time…
Anyone could buy them when they were new, excursions were in the $30ks new, some Hummers started in high $20s new, or $40s for a deuce. Today a high school parking lot has cars twice as expensive. My point was anyone interested in their “image” or “ego”, aren’t going to be in an old truck, at least not as likely as a accord, pickup, or German car.
Okay. People taking selfies won’t drive an Excursion. They’ll drive an Excursion with big wheels. Or an Escalade.
And, an Excursion is not an old truck. My 1987 Chevrolet is an old truck. My 1995 F-150 borders on being an old truck.
People concerned about their egos seem to lift Broncos around here, though. That’s the way we get down- in a Hicktown.
Those people don’t usually take selfies, though.
Hey now, I have a (slightly) lifted Bronco and my ego is mostly under control…I think.
When I think of selfies I think of Land Rover Evoques, Jettas, and maybe the occasional Wrangler.
Texting while driving is perfectly safe if you look up once in a while.
I’ve seen people do just that. It’s NOT safe under any circumstances, unless you’re stopped.
I saw a teenage girl in a Cutlass Ciera almost hit a box truck head on because of it. I was actually reaching for my phone to call 911.
It’s amazing she didn’t crash. She corrected too much, and almost went off the road the other way though.
It’s not safe. Don’t do it with others on the road. If you want to commit suicide by cell phone, fine. Don’t risk the lives of others, though.
I can’t comment on if texting while driving is safe, but it is Annoying as Hell.
Personal anecdote time!
I was out shopping in a nearby small city, one with a major highway running through it and with one-way three-lane service roads paralleling the highway on either side. I was done with my shopping in stores on the one side of the highway and want to go to lunch at the restaurants on the other side of the highway, so I pull onto the access road with little traffic but one car coming up the center lane.
This car then gets right on the left corner of my bumper and just hangs there. Well, I need to get over from the right lane to the far left lane in order to access the underpass and get where I’m going, and feeling charitable I decelerate to let them overtake me.
They decelerate as well. I decelerate more, they decelerate more, always maintaining relative position, just that little bit too close to my left rear bumper for me to safely change lanes.
I change tactics and star accelerating, the car matches this maneuver as well. We’re coming up on the underpass and I’m wondering if this jerk is gonna keep me blocked-out through this one and all the rest for miles?
Traffic is coming up in the rear view, it’s risky, but doable. I slam on the brakes, they shoot past me, I quickly change lanes and pull up alongside them on the other side at the traffic-light on the underpass.
I looked over, and saw a teenage girl with both hands and both eyes on her cell-phone, steering the car with her knees.
Did you really need to test the theory that typing while driving may be hazardous to your health?
People around me that are more ‘in’ than me and expect me to be available at all times…On a road that doesn’t have any intersections r bus stops or similar I felt it was pretty safe, I wouldn’t even think about doing it in actual traffic.
On a side note, there has been research done on talking on a phone while driving, and it’s apparently not any more distracting than having a conversation with your passenger(s)…
Driving alone ftw.
+1. I find in in actual city traffic things are changing quickly enough that the texting and looking up thing still takes my attention off the road for too long. Mostly end up banging texts out while stopped at red lights.
Where I live, this seems to have become the crime du jour for enforcement, with stiff tickets and fairly heavy enforcement (for a while cops dressed as homeless people at intersections to catch you out).
I’ve seen studies that suggest that talking to a person who is not present with you is more distracting. While the ‘truth’ may not be known, it seems a bad idea to justify a potentially unsafe practice because we feel comfortable doing something else that is just as dangerous.
But you don’t have to look your passenger in the eye and try to study small details of their face, while touching a keypad of five-millimeter-square targets in a moving car just to have a conversation. Or are some folks so practiced at this that they can type without looking?
The research that I’ve read regarding texting and driving shows it to be worse than drinking and driving. Fines should be greatly increased and/or cell phones confiscated after a second offence. I certainly don’t need to be slurping on a 40 ounce pop either, driving is a privilege not a right.
Using a phone, or any other electronic device, is at best risky. About 8 years ago I was trying to dial a number when I looked up and saw that the vehicle in front of me was almost stopped to make a turn. I did the following in rapid succession; swerved left hard( by the grace of God there was no oncoming traffic), dropped the phone, screamed like a little girl(I think), soiled myself(I know). These days I ONLY use the phone for GPS while driving. Not that I’m now a saint, as I will still chomp on the occasional cheeseburger, and slurp on a drink.
As a side note, a few days back a young man (21 years old) was killed about 100 feet from my house. Went across the center line, clipped a Mazda flipping it and then head on into a 2500 Ram. His Altima was squashed like a beer can and he died before they could get him out of the car. According to the car that was behind him, they had seen him doing something on his phone about 1/4 mile back up the road.
We all make mistakes, some of us are just lucky to live and learn from them.
This is why the Internet is great. The ‘selfies’ thing has been percolating slowly through the mainstream media for the past month or so. In the old days, it would have been a full-blown afterschool special by now, and if the scolds were really having a good day, Congress might ban camera phones (I’ll bet a small amount that someone is helping push this issue hoping for that outcome). But since the people on TV aren’t the only ones who can talk, the rest of us can remind our fellow citizens that it’s not the camera, the phone, or the physical ability to take a photo of oneself that causes accidents, it’s just the idiot behind/in front of the camera.
As if reading a map or checking an address wasn’t distracting back in the day. Think of how distracting a AAA “triptik” was.
Trip-tix and turn signals use were the norm at one time. Now there is no turn signal use when on the phone.
Lol, there is no turn signal use whether or not people are on the phone!
Not much surprises me but it seems like turn signal use has really dropped off the cliff in the past 10-12 yrs.
Too bad.
I’ve gotten looks from people for using a turn signal.
It’s not that hard! Whether you have a Mercedes or a Kia, the procedure is pretty painless.
Because the possibility that the women was preoccupied taking selfies makes better copy then “Woman Dies in Car Wreck” Since most news media has devolved into news entertainment stories about stupid tweeting, texting, selfie-taking drivers are more entertaining resulting in more viewers, readers and clicks
I was run off the road last by someone texting behind the wheel so forgive me if I am not buying your “distracted driving is a media conspiracy” story.
Seriously. I sort of hope people using phones while driving die. I do what I can.
Sort of similar situation as yours – woman next to me in the right lane was using her Iphone across her steering wheel, but she drifted to the right and up onto a curb instead of going left and veering into me.
I and my mother have been in accidents that (I believe) were directly caused in part by cell phone use. I realize it’s anecdotal, but personal experience is a powerfully persuasive thing.
I make it a point to not use my phone when driving, period. I don’t currently have a car that permits pairing a phone, but I expect to buy one soon-ish. And when I do, I have absolutely no intention of connecting the phone, ever. I don’t need internet in my car. I don’t need to know what’s happening on facebook. I don’t need to read/send text messages. I don’t need pandora.
I’m not a luddite. I like advancements in useful technology–what I don’t like is bloatware.
I recently discovered my new mazdy has a “blocking mode” so I can play music from bluetooth but texts don’t pop up on my screen (Which you’ll note in Jack’s CX-5 review are laughably bad anyways). It was only a few days later that my wife told me she’s tried calling me when I must have been driving and it went straight to voicemail.
Ta-Daa!
Although I wish there was a setting to block texts but not calls… No one ever calls me, so it’s usually important/urgent.
I know you aren’t saying texting while driving is good, but it sounds like you are saying that driving takes too little of your attention. As if driving a two ton plus vehicle at sometimes high rate of speed doesn’t deserve your attention.
Simply put, her last text was a minute before the accident was reported to 911. I would be very surprised if distracted driving wasn’t the reason for the crash. But you are right, innocent until proven guilty.
No, he’s saying conclusions are being drawn without really having the facts.
Texting behind the wheel is becoming more and more common, and as someone who logs 20K or more a year commuting (yea, lucky me) it is cake to spot the texters. There is no way anyone can argue that this behavior is even remotely conducive to safe driving. If you are texting, you are not looking at the road. This is a case where strong enforcement and high penalties make safety sense.
No, you’re great at spotting the drivers ‘bad’ at texting/multitasking. You won’t catch me texting b/c it might take me more than a minute to text a simple “Hm @ 3” in congested city driving. It’s all in how you go about it.
But take away all hand held devices and it won’t make a dent in crash stats. Distracted driving wasn’t invented with cellphones.
Although I’m not so good at tuning the stereo, apparently. I did get pulled over on the freeway for it and had to prove to the CHP I wasn’t drunk. This was before cellphones, but I was stone sober. It was 2 AM though.
2233.33366677733 7777627778744666.6633777 11 933 83399833.3 5554445533 844.444777 1
I see what you did there.
Don’t you mean
01001001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101
I feel sorry for the truck driver, I hope he is able to make a full recovery. How a 32 year old, who grew up without vast media connection could honestly become so attracted to self promotion makes no sense.
Who are all these people trying to impress or attract, who looks at these photos and actually gives a damn?
I mean texting because your kid is in the hospital and you need updates, or because some other incident has happened and you need to know info or where, at least has reason attached to it. But to post on the Internet to hundreds of people that don’t give a rats, – mind boggling how people think.
YOLO
I agree, it is amazing how phones how turned so many people into juveniles again. I understand my teenages being obsessed with their phones, selfies, facebook updates, etc, but I am shocked by how many adults have fallen under the same spell. I always want to ask, what the hell is on there that is so fascinating? Is there some massive breaking news story that I am missing out on? As an employer, it’s even worse.
But there are many forms of distracting driving, my only such accident (which was minor thankfully) was caused by my roast beef sandwich.
“my only such accident (which was minor thankfully) was caused by my roast beef sandwich.”
Euphemism? ;)
Meanwhile, Pharrell Williams watches it all on a wall of TVs and cackles maniacally from his secret chamber in the bowels of Daft Punk’s spaceship. “Soon,” he says. “Soon they’ll all be HAPPY.” He pauses to take a selfie while eating a bowl of grapes.
“And when everyone’s happy…” his visage morphs from a smug grin to a cold, cold stare, “…no one will be.”
Totally safe selfie:
http://tinyurl.com/m7fjf5f
A significant number of otherwise seemingly rational people reject clear, unambiguous scientific evidence for the simple reason that taking heed would go against their own self(ish) interests. “Distracted-driving denial” is just one example of this phenomenon.
“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Ever since the cold war ended the once clear line between the “good guys” and “bad guys” has become increasingly vague. It’s become very difficult to hate someone with a clear conscience
Why pull fuses in My FordTouch when the faulty APIM’ll do it for you?
Anyone who dies in this manner deserves a posthumous Darwin award.
The opposite side of the coin is also true:
those who don’t have the reflexes to dodge texters – or the smarts/money to buy cars fast enough to stay far ahead of them – won’t live long enough to procreate.
My reflexes are quick enough now on the bike but I’m sick of people drifting across the double yellow into my side on twisty backroads while they answer the phone. I have the power to get past them and the narrow track that even if they take my whole lane I can squeeze around them. But it sure takes the joy out of a weekend ride to have to keep my guard that high up all the time.
“…or the smarts/money to buy cars fast enough to stay far ahead of them – won’t live long enough to procreate”
I’m sorry, BigTrucks, you’re a lot of fun around here but that is one of the dumbest things I’ve read in awhile.
30 mile
I believe in Darwinism.
Though it sounds dumb, my logic is undeniable.
From what I’ve seen, Texting while driving is mostly done in economy cars, or older luxury barges.
German car owners can be complete jerks, but I’ve never seen a BMW with a texting driver.
So how fast do you have to go to stay ahead of somebody drifting over from the opposing lanes?
Dumb isn’t the word, but “asinine” comes close.
8. Did I get it right?
The cell phone selfie is basically the CUV of photography; self-centered and vain. The object projects an image, no matter how compromised, in order to maintain social parity with their peers. Other forms would provide a better quality function in almost every respect, but at times might require forward thinking which would be unacceptable in today’s instant gratification society.
Unfortunately, in the effort to counter the media hype about the lethality of phone use while driving, Jack and others come very close to stating there is no problem at all with it.
Given how quickly TTAC readers “flame on,” let me first try to protect myself by saying “I understand, that cell phone use in a car can distract drivers, and that such distraction can lead to accidents and deaths.” I am not arguing that point. And I have no idea if the number of deaths is really high, or low, or whatever.
But I would like to bring up a related point: the NET impact of cell phones on road fatalities. One can look up the work of Richard Fowles at the University of Utah for example. The summary of the argument: if many drivers have cell phones, the negative effect is lives lost by distracted-driving crashes; but the positive effect is that many more accidents are immediately called in by passing motorists, if they see an accident. There is some evidence that many fewer people are dying due to bleeding out in the car after a crash because – prior to ubiquitous cell-phone ownership – there was no fast easy way for a passing motorist to call EMS.
The academics (e.g. Fowles) run the models and make the calculations to figure the net effect, and I ain’t smart enough to know what the right answer is, but it was fascinating to learn about this research.
Basically, in the long run, if you’re a cold-blooded economist, you would need to know, before (e.g.) blocking in-car cellphone use, the relative quantities of:
1. COSTS due to lost lives, accidents, etc.,
2. BENEFITS of calls made (let’s face it, we wouldn’t be calling cars unless we derived benefit from doing so), and
3. BENEFITS of lives saved by motorists calling in crashes they’ve seen.
There has been endless research into #1… I’ll assume some into #2 (not that I have seen it)… and I was really intrigued to see someone trying to quantify #3.
Okay, sorry for Nerd Interlude, let the flaming resume. I’ll kick it off: “This is all due to Obama.”
The flaw is the assumption that beneficial phone calls need to be made when driving. It’s perfectly fine to pull over, make a call, and then proceed on your way.
This yields the same benefits, but doesn’t require the negatives.
These points about cell phone use become mute when hands free operation of phones is the norm and the law in many states. I can make and receive calls all day long without ever having to look at my phone. Texting and selfies not so much
I pride myself on being a young guy who doesn’t text and drive.
I’m dangerous enough without a phone in my hand. :P
Am I morbid to admit that I really want to see the last selfie taken here?
Hope she’s the only one who dies.
Darwin is usually much messier.
Waiting at a crosswalk I once saw a guy driving with one hand hanging out the window and the other firmly grasping a cell phone. His head was at the customary 20-degree down angle typical of people addicted to their phones. The problem with wishing a Darwin candidate like him dies a painful death is that he typically will take an innocent person with him.
Him and the assholes who feel the compulsion to check their phones every other minute in the movie theater… please go extinct.
Candy Crush? That’s *so* 2013. These days, people are trying to figure out how to sell their “Flappy Bird”-equipped iPhones for $100,000.
Presumption of innocence in a government court of law when accused by that government is one of our founding principles; not in casual discourse, not even in civil court. Much like freedom of speech only means you can’t be arrested or fined by the government, not that we all have to treat any asinine speech as equally valid, or even grant it a place to be heard other than the sidewalk. And we’re free to shout it down or walk away. It’s not that no one can be held in any way accountable unless it’s absolutely provable beyond a reasonable doubt, rather that they can only be imprisoned by the government if that standard is met.
BTW, posting selfies while driving is dangerous.
“In the meantime, all Americans are encouraged to hang up their phones, turn off the Candy Crush, pull the fuse from their MyFordTouch systems, place both hands at ten and two at the wheel, and stare determinedly at the bumper of the stopped car in traffic ahead. When it’s safe to do something else, we’ll text you.”
Exactly. Put down the crap and LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING. If not they can do a gofuckyourselfie.
John
Well, the deceased certainly can’t put the blame on an icy patch. If she was texting at the time, she was texting– there’s self-documented proof of that.
Of course distracted driving is a major cause of accidents. How many of the others– like drunkenness, or willful violation of rights of way, or vehicle failure, or pushing your vehicle beyond the safe confines of the Circle of Friction — do most of us practice every day?
My personal experience is no more relevant than yours, Jack, but I can attest that one of my serious lifetime accidents was caused when I was reaching to pick up a stray KYB gas shock adjusting knob that was rattling around annoyingly in the left wheel well, while I was carving the twisties. Another happened when I drove up the tail of a pickup stopped in the fast lane. It was the same color as the mountain in the background, with no brake lights or flashers… oh, and I was trying to clean the windshield, with my eyes momentarily focused on the near distance.
These days, yes, I try to to just keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road, and just drive. I drive a GTI, just like those two I wrecked- not while racing, but while being mellow, “happy” and distracted. Those GTIs will really protect you in a collision, I’ve proved that. This time, I got the last model year, ’09, that lets me tune the audio without resorting to an awkward, distracting touchscreen display. Keep it simple, that’s my motto now.