If you’re reading this behind the wheel, you’re missing the point. Even though most everyone has heard about the dangers of distracted driving, most still do it. Most drivers also get away with it. Despite Georgia’s 2010 laws banning all texting behind wheel and teen cell phone use in the same setting, swiping and swerving has only gotten worse.
To crystallize this danger, insurance company Allstate set up a simulator in Downtown Atlanta on Aug. 28. Staged in Steve Polk Plaza on MLK Jr. Dr. next to the old World of Coca-Cola, the team had an SUV equipped with a computer screen-windshield. A team member sat in the tailgate with a laptop and sent texts to a model cell phone. The participant (in this case me) took the phone behind the wheel and the team chose the course for my drive.
“We want to show people in a safe environment the dangers of distracted driving,” said Allstate spokesman Adam Polak. “We want them to take this message back to their families and their communities.”
As I drove the winding, two-lane mountain road course, I not only failed to maintain my lane, I also answered the text, “Are you coming to get the sofa?” with “Most,” instead of, “No.” I failed at driving and texting.
I got a ticket with four violations: texting, cell use (well, yeah), swerving and driving off the road. The team member told me I did pretty well. I disagree.
Then they set me up on the city course. I tried to take a video with my own cell phone and drive looking through the camera. I stopped well short of a traffic light, drove too fast and got hit head on by a taxi driving the wrong way into my lane. It was their fault, but it was my fault also for driving with diminished attention.
“It just takes a matter of seconds for somebody’s life to change forever,” Polak said. “We want to change the culture. We want people to realize that picking up their phone when they get in the car is just as uncomfortable as not fastening their seatbelt.”
He added one of the scariest things he sees is teens who ace the simulator while texting. Lawmaking is one thing. Culture-changing is far more daunting.
Speaking of the former, some lawmakers leaving the MLK Memorial statue ceremony stopped and tried the simulator. Their buy-in on this life-altering issue is another goal for this simulator setup. Capitol Police officers also give the simulator a crash course.
This team also encourages drivers to employ a signal-blocking device called cellcontrol.
“It stops texts, emails, browsing on your phone, all while you’re behind the wheel. You connect it and sync it to your mobile device and it is able to stop all communication,” Allstate’s Gillian Maxfield said. She noted that the device allows for safe GPS navigation and emergency calls. And parents can customize what apps the device can block in the car and can tune it to accept their incoming calls. It mounts just under the rearview mirror.
Visitors to the simulator can sign pledges to not text and drive and the names go on a virtual display at each site. Hundreds have pledged.
Texting and driving hurts the insurance industry’s bottom line. Vehicles are much more expensive these days. And now when a new car gets in a texting-induced fender bender, bumpers may have cameras or sensors, which drive up their replacement costs. This is why premiums have gone up all over the United States.
Crashes have cost Georgia on average $10.787 billion dollars per year for the last 10 years. And over 13,500 people have died in wrecks in Georgia. Driving is a costly and deadly endeavor, one we must take seriously now more than ever.
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