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Texting has g2g for student drivers

By Francesca Chambers

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

When Gina Littlejohn, Lenexa sophomore, was driving to high school one morning, she received a text message.

Littlejohn waited to respond to the text until she came to a red light, but before she was finished the light turned green. Littlejohn pushed on the gas pedal without looking up and immediately felt her car stop and then quickly bounce backwards. She had hit the car in front of her.

Luckily for Littlejohn, the passenger in the other car was a friend’s mother, so legal action was not taken. But Littlejohn had to admit to her parents she had been text messaging when the accident occurred.

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Photo Illustration by Chance Dibben/KANSAN

A survey of 321 KU students found that 72 percent of them send text messages while driving.

Seven people were killed and 161 were injured in Kansas in cell phone-related car accidents in 2007, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Web site.

In a 2007 study, Paul Atchley, associate professor of psychology found that 231 of 321 students interviewed — 72 percent — occasionally text messaged while driving.

In a February 11 article, U.S. News and World Report released a study that estimated 20 percent of drivers are text messaging while driving at any given time. The article quoted another poll that found that 66 percent of those drivers are ages 18 to 24.

In a study by Paul Atchley, associate professor of psychology, 72 percent of the 321 KU students he surveyed said they texted while driving. Atchley’s study, conducted last fall, looked at why students talk on their cell phones while driving.

Atchley said he decided to begin another study that focused only on texting after he found a “surprising” percentage of students who said they texted while driving even though they knew it was dangerous. Atchley said he planned to complete the new study by the end of the spring semester.

The number of car accidents associated with cell phone use in Kansas has almost doubled in the past five years, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Web site. Although cell phone use accounted for only 0.5 percent of the total number of accidents in 2007, 161 people were injured and seven people were killed. Text messaging is not its own category on KDOT’s accident evaluation form, and Bob House, a research analyst for KDOT, said a new form would take effect in January for the first time since 1990, although text messaging is not listed on it either.

No laws in Kansas ban drivers from using phones or other mobile electronic devices. Only seven states and Washington, D.C., have laws regulating cell phone use while driving. California was added to the list just last month after investigators confirmed that a commuter train engineer was text messaging when his train collided with a freight train, killing 25 people and injuring more than 130 others.

The Kansas Legislature discussed a bill in 2000 that would have required drivers to use hands-free devices, but the bill did not pass.

State Rep. Barbara Ballard (D-Lawrence) said telecommunication companies blocked the bill. Ballard said some legislators might be interested in reintroducing the bill, but she said she thought the push for legislation would have to be initiated by car insurance companies.

Ballard said she would most likely support a bill that regulated cell phone use while driving if it were brought before the Kansas House of Representatives again.

Ballard said this was a safety issue because people “might end up getting injured or killed because of your negligence.”

Lawrence considered similar legislation in 2006, which would have made it the first city in the United States to regulate cell phone use in vehicles, but the bill died in the Traffic Safety Commission before reaching the City Commission.

Some KU students said they occasionally text messaged while driving even though they knew it wasn’t safe. Some also said Kansas legislators should ban text messaging while driving; however, they said they thought the proposed law could not be enforced.

“Anything that takes your attention off the road while you are driving is dangerous and stupid,” said Tyler Thress, Wichita senior. “While a law is a nice idea, I think it will be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce. We just need to be more responsible, and more safe, by not texting while driving.”

Some students don’t text and drive — not anymore at least — and Littlejohn is one of them. Her parents took away her text messaging until this summer, more than two years after her accident. Littlejohn said she intended to keep the feature this time.

“I pretty much had to beg them to give it back, and now I never text and drive,” she said.

— — Edited by Lauren Keith

Comments

Texting has g2g for student drivers

People always pull out in front of me, or practice unsafe driving maneuvers around me, regardless of what I'm driving/riding. I've had people nearly hit me while riding my bike- while talking on their cell phones. When I'm driving the bus, people cut me off or swerve into my lane- hell, yesterday some guy made a left turn in front of me- and I had the right of way (he ran a yield sign). Most of these people are not paying attention. Hang up and drive.

Texting has g2g for student drivers

“Anything that takes your attention off the road while you are driving is dangerous and stupid,” said Tyler Thress, Wichita senior. “While a law is a nice idea, I think it will be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce. We just need to be more responsible, and more safe, by not texting while driving.”

Tyler, enforcing the law is not difficult. It's easy to see when people are using cell phones on the road, and thus easy to stop people for it. I know, I've lived in states where it was the law before. They have no problems stopping you for it, and love having the ability to tack on another charge when you hit someone.

People won't just stop doing it without being forced. The public, on the whole, has an "I want it, and I want it now-even if it negatively impacts others" attitude. Those attitudes aren't going t just disappear.

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