A recent follow-up to a story from this spring made me furious. Last month, an investigation by Channel 2 Action News' Justin Gray found that an officer at fault in a serious crash in April on I-85/northbound in Suwanee was streaming a YouTube video at the time of impact.
Gwinnett PD Officer Tony Ramsey rear-ended motorist Sarah Wood’s SUV at a normal PM drive slowing point. Wood was moving 6 miles per hour when Ramsey piled in at 68 mph. The crushing impact sent Wood into a four-week coma, and the continuing pain prevents her from wearing her hearing aids and going back to her job.
A professionally trained driver and law-enforcement officer didn’t recognize a major slow zone that occurs almost every week day in that spot, because he was blatantly breaking the Hands-Free Georgia Act. The crash was Ramsey’s eighth at-fault crash, Channel 2 discovered, via an open records request. Ramsey, a 23-year-veteran, also wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. These absolute acts of ignorance and irresponsibility should be a jarring wakeup call to law enforcement and the general public alike.
The first thing everyone should note is the ripple effect of bad decisions. Law enforcement is one group that has an exemption from the Hands-Free Georgia Act, because officers need to have their computers and phones to respond to calls. But they are also supposed to be using those computers only for the jobs at hand.
Officer Ramsey, ironically, was watching some kind of video about the Grand Theft Auto video game.
He has likely gotten away with doing such things before and driven just fine. He told investigators that he had a problem with his eye or contact, which he should have pulled over to address. Both slightly bad decisions added up to major consequences: a severely injured driver who cannot return to work, massive medical debt, another driver with minor injuries, two destroyed cars, a giant traffic backup that inconvenienced thousands of people, a job demotion, and likely embarrassment and shame for the officer and anyone with a badge. None of these were likely in Officer Wood’s mind when he made his fateful decisions on April 1.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
The difference in speed at the time of impact makes the officer’s malfeasance even more egregious. There was a 62 mph disparity in the vehicles — that doesn’t happen when the trailing driver is fully paying attention. But considering how many things distract us behind the wheel these days, many of us could make a similar mistake. As easy as lampooning this officer is (and is rightfully deserved), we each are one series of moderately bad decisions from doing the same thing.
Another notion to remember is that many laws set the low bar for behavior — a lowest common denominator. Being a non-murderer is not the same as living a life of generosity. The law doesn’t require people to be nice, loving, and charitable, it just works to keep us from hurting, killing, and stealing from each other. Likewise, the Hands-Free Georgia Act functions to keep the general public from holding their phone and driving, in an effort to more easily crack down on the worst distracted driving behavior: texting. For officers, they are allowed to hold phones and use computers to perform their jobs. But that shouldn’t license them to use that privilege just any time.
The exceptions for law enforcement and the minimal rules for civilians are only the low bars. Driving should be treated with gravity and anyone behind the wheel should aim higher.
Officer Ramsey got demoted and prohibited from driving a Gwinnett County vehicle of any kind.
The police department wouldn’t answer Channel 2’s question about why was charged only with following too closely, citing pending litigation. Wood’s more than $500,000 medical debt has her and her attorney in talks with Gwinnett on a settlement. The fallout from Ramsey’s flippant behavior will affect both Ramsey and Wood for years to come.
These reasons are why Officer Ramsey’s blatant distracted driving should jolt every driver from their intellectual drowsiness. Any of us could be in Ramsey’s shoes, because many of us do similar things and just haven’t been punished. And any officer who heard this story probably probably felt angry and embarrassed about how poorly Ramsey represented the badge. But they, too, need to use this anecdote as a time of self-appraisal about their stewardship of the great power they are given.
Officers should be the ultimate examples of how to drive, not the exceptions to decent road behavior. If we all aimed to behave behind the wheel, horrible crashes like Ramsey’s and Wood’s would see a sharp decrease. And so would the dire consequences.
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. He also writes a traffic blog and hosts a podcast with Smilin' Mark McKay on wsbradio.com. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com .
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