Traffic Deaths on the Rise as Distracted Drivers Roam the Roads
After years of tougher drunken-driving laws and a massive awareness campaign, the public's attitude about intoxicated motoring shifted and traffic fatalities decreased.
Yet now, after decades of overall improvement in driving safety, traffic fatalities again are on the rise.
Deaths increased 8% nationwide last year — the largest year-to-year increase in a half-century. For the first six months of 2016, driving fatalities are up 9% over the same period last year, the National Safety Council reported Aug. 23.
The rebounding economy plays a large role, but safety experts say there is a new danger driving part of the increase: distracted driving.
Drivers now are not just talking on cellphones — they're texting, using apps to follow directions, even playing Pokemon Go. Stopping this epidemic of distracted driving, safety advocates say, will take a societal shift to render such behavior socially unacceptable.
But for now, experts warn, the problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.
"That's going to be really hard to enforce," said Ken Kolosh, manager of statistics for the Safety Council, based in suburban Itasca. "The use of phones to the ear is decreasing somewhat, but drivers are more and more likely to do texting and social media and other apps. That is even more dangerous."
Traffic fatalities this year are on a pace to reach 40,000, which would be the highest total since 2007. That's a vast improvement from about 55,000 deaths annually in the 1970s but reverses years of declines that have been attributed to air bags, less drunken driving and more seat belt use.
The danger of distracted driving is all too real to Chuck Wilhelm of Bourbonnais, Illinois. Ten years ago, his 25-year-old son, Matthew, died after he was hit on a bicycle by a teenage driver who was downloading ring tones to her phone.
"People like this are putting us at risk," Wilhelm said. "It's gotten worse because more people are doing it now."
Streamwood Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Tomzik said he has seen the sometimes devastating results of distracted driver accidents, with victims ejected through windshields or pinned under cars. He also has seen drivers weaving while texting.
"I'd put that as one of the biggest causes of accidents," he said. "A lot of people in cars now are so self-contained, they're really not paying attention. They're eating a sandwich, talking to their friends, running their lives. You should be paying close attention to what you're doing."
Illinois has passed laws to outlaw texting and handheld phone use while driving, and has increased penalties for people who cause accidents while disobeying such laws.
But the state has seen even bigger increases in traffic fatalities than the nation, with increases of 12% this year and last year, according to the Safety Council.
The troubling trend has left some lawmakers looking for a new solution.
One proposal in New York called for allowing police to use a "totalizer" after serious accidents to check whether a driver was using a phone at the time of the crash, similar to a Breathalyzer for drunken driving. Privacy advocates have protested, and the Supreme Court has required police to get court authority to search a cellphone, but the issue isn't settled.
In the long run, experts hope that safety improvements such as automatic collision avoidance systems and adaptive headlights that see better around curves will cut down on the most common crashes, including rear-end collisions.
Some of those systems are available now, and others will be more common in the future. The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety estimated that such systems could cut fatalities significantly. Warnings for when a vehicle leaves its lane also could save lives by alerting drivers before they drift off the road.
Touch-free voice technology for phones may seem like an additional solution, but studies have shown that can be even more mentally distracting in some cases, Kolosh said.
Another factor believed to contribute to deaths is higher speed limits. Federal limits on speed were repealed in 1995, leading many states to increase limits. Many Illinois interstate limits now are 70 mph outside metropolitan areas. The Safety Council cited studies showing the higher limits were associated with a 3% increase in fatalities.
Apart from speed and distracted driving, one of the biggest factors in traffic fatalities is the economy. The Safety Council notes that the number of miles driven correlates with economic activity and reached a record high this year, with more people driving for work and gas prices generally low.
More people driving farther, faster and with more distractions means more people are likely to die on the roads. The Safety Council estimates that more than 400 are likely to die this Labor Day weekend alone.
In the Chicago area, personal injury attorney Patrick Salvi said he's handling an increasing amount of distracted driving cases.
In one case, he said, a mentally disabled man was struck from behind by a car while walking by the side of the road in Ottawa, Illinois. in 2011. Cellphone records suggested the driver was using the phone at the time, Salvi said, and last month a judge awarded the victim almost $7 million for catastrophic injuries.
With almost all of us using cellphones, Salvi said, it will require a shift in attitudes to reduce the danger.
"It's got to be where it's very taboo, where if you're found guilty you're a pariah," he said. "I think that's what it will take.
