Sorry, Grandma, I was just texting

A useless sign.

The typical scenario goes like this:

“According to the Platte County prosecutor, Rachel N. Gannon, of Kansas City, was allegedly texting on her cell phone when she lost control of her vehicle and collided with a car driven by Loretta J. Larimer, 72, who was killed in the crash.” Larimer’s 10-year-old granddaughter was injured in the crash. She has recovered, but misses her grandma fiercely. Sixteen-year-old Rachel, charged with second degree murder, regrets her lapse. But that won’t bring Mrs. Larimer back.

And it’s happening a lot. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2011 (last year complete data are available), 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 injured in distracted driving motor vehicle accidents. Don’t discount the injuries – many are life changing, involving paraplegia, quadriplegia, or amputations. This carnage goes on year after year, and we don’t seem to have any effective solutions.

To make matters worse, distracted driving is a major factor in head-on collisions, exacerbating the probability of fatality or severe injury. In a head-on collision, the speed of the two vehicles must be combined to determine the total energy of the collision. While we normally think of violent, dangerous accidents occurring at highway speeds, texting brings these metal-twisting, human-blending accidents to our leafy residential streets. And it all starts with a drift from the lane of travel.

In a tidy bit of local reporting, Monique Ting, writing for the Attleboro Sun Chronicle, gives us insight into the thinking of these distracted drivers (“Sorry, but they still text and drive”, June 19, 2013).  In her story, a number of drivers admit texting, most regretfully. One unnamed driver enlightens us, saying “I would not text if I were driving anybody else besides myself.” This fortunately anonymous driver reveals an odd mix of suicidal sociopathy. He or she is peculiarly willing to kill himself, or you, or me, or our families, but not some incidental passenger in his own automobile. Freud would be perplexed.

Many states have passed laws prohibiting texting while driving. Missouri did, but that didn’t save Mrs. Larimer. The problem, as repeatedly described in this column, is the lack of certainty and severity of punishment. Transgressors don’t perceive adequate risk of punishment to change their behavior. Laws on the books and signs on the roadside alone will not do it.

Here is what we must do. First, police must begin to assiduously enforce laws already on the books which require drivers to stay within marked lanes. When a driver wanders out of her lane, she is impaired or distracted and should be immediately stopped and ticketed. The courts have a role, also, and that is in not forgiving or treating lightly such offenses. The message must be loud and clear – “Wander from your lane and you will be punished!”

A simple thing, it covers so many distractions and impairments, the targets of  dozens of existing separate laws. But enforcing this one law, lane discipline, would make a difference. Let’s make it happen. Loretta Larimer’s granddaughter is watching.