The Chainlink

Today's Trib: "What we need is jail time, immediately, for texters who drive..."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-texting-drivi...

The other day I saw something happen on the road.

A woman was driving a nice, new, cream-colored luxury SUV with gold trim in the lane to my left. She was a young woman, blonde, ponytail, big sunglasses.

I've seen men do what she was about to do. Perhaps you've seen it too

We were moving along at about 35 miles per hour. And there were school buses in traffic, and at the lights there were children waiting to cross the street. A truck slowed down for cars pulling into a Starbucks. A bicyclist cruised past.

I glanced over and there she was, moving along, except she wasn't looking at the road ahead of her. She was looking at her cellphone, touching keys, her car keeping speed. The only way she'd know of the crash would be the crunch of the body against her car.

So I hit the horn, angry. She sped up, then slowed. She lifted her right hand — the one with the phone in it — and saluted me with her middle finger.

She held that finger up there as she drove off.

Several minutes later, on the highway, it happened again. This time the driver was in an older black sedan. She had closely cropped hair, silvery, her head down as she typed something on the keys of the phone in her lap. Again I hit the horn, pressed it down.

She looked up, and must have seen me, open-mouthed, angry, telling her to stop it. She didn't give me the finger. Instead, she laughed.

And laughed and laughed.

I could see her gold teeth catching the morning sun.

Both times I could feel my blood coming up. But I didn't allow road rage to build. I just drove on to work, wondering when it would happen:

When would these texting drivers kill a kid, or another driver, or a bicyclist, or some other pedestrian?

Not if, but when.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that in 2010 distracted driving was the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes. That's 3,092 people killed, and an additional 416,000 or so injured in such crashes.

Illinois has a law against texting and driving. If cited, you can receive a fine. But some states don't yet ban it. According to a recent report in USA Today, these include Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Hawaii.

But in Illinois, if you're texting while driving and convicted of injuring someone, you can face fines of $2,500 and up to a year in jail. And if you're convicted of causing death, it can be $25,000 and up to three years in prison.

State lawmakers are no doubt proud of their prohibitions. But there's something deadly wrong. Why not jail time for a first offense, whether you hit anyone or not?

Would we merely fine someone juggling knives at a preschool or on a corner crowded with pedestrians? A car with a driver who won't look at the road is more dangerous than some knife juggler.

A fine is too cheap and easy.

I'd be a liar if I told you that years ago I didn't text while driving. I've done it, and I'm ashamed.

To most of us, the phone has become a device with a thrumming urgency. We're addicted. It's a dog whistle from the tech giants who shape the mind of the world, their gizmos literally reconfiguring neural pathways in the brain.

But I stopped texting while driving a long while ago for this reason: I can still remember the screech of the tires on that dry, sunny afternoon.

No one was touched or hurt, but I can hear those tires in my sleep and see the leaves skittering along the curb and the back of that flatbed truck coming up at me.

The anti-texting movement has spawned a series of new public service announcements just now being broadcast. The TV commercials show cute teenagers who text while driving and what happens to them. They die.

But the problem with PSAs is that they're soon mocked. We mocked the anti-pot PSAs when we were kids, and today's kids do the same. Remember, the people I saw texting the other day weren't teenagers. They were grown.

What we need is jail time, immediately, for texters who drive.

And not home-monitoring time like some politician's kid might get. No, I'm talking real into-the-cells-with-barbarians time, or out-on-a-work-farm time, under the sun with other stupid barbarians behind the barbed wire.

Some might think my use of the word "barbarian" is rude, perhaps even stupid. But only a stupid barbarian would operate a motor vehicle and not watch the road and turn that car or truck into a deadly weapon.

Reasonable arguments don't work on stupid criminals. That's the thing about criminals. They're not usually evil geniuses with cultured British or German accents and a love of opera, poetry and fine wine, petting white Persian cats.

They're usually stupid brutes who are afraid of going to jail. And that fear may stop them.

Now some other stupid barbarians — and again, I've been a member of that tribe — are afraid they'll miss that next incoming text. They reach for the phone with one hand on the wheel. And as they look down, the school bus door opens and the children run for home.

jskass@tribune.com Twitter @John_Kass

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Wow.

I think the US is finally coming around to the fact that sugarcoating it no longer helps.

Not long ago, an PSA like this would have been unthinkable in the US:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

Education, enforcement and changing societal norms together are what will outlaw this behavior.

Education: The law is not clearly communicated. Question: is it legal to check your device while waiting for a traffic light to turn green? As far as I can tell?: It depends. Clearly we need more PSAs, questions during drivers-ed explaining the laws.

Enforcement: Clearly, this needs to be stepped up. It appears that you only get a ticket if you text and drive while doing something else illegal at the same time.

Societal Norms: A generation ago drinking while driving was the norm and it was socially accepted. Not saying it doesn't happen anymore, but in most social circles it is now frowned upon.

Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

Agree with all Duppie said, although they did do that texting-and-driving sting on 90/94 near Chicago Ave the other month.

Problem is, many times when i pass a CPD car, i see the officer on the 'phone. How are they supposed to enforce the law when they flout it  themselves?

Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

I think that there should be more public shaming that would go along with the fine. Something like forcing the offender to use an old bulky cell phone instead of theirs for a week or so.

It's not just that they're "flouting" the law.... I have not seen a police car in at least two years where the cop in the passenger seat is not absorbed in their smart phone (texting/facebooking/whatever.)

Considering a good part of their job is supposed to be patrolling between calls, we have effectively half as many cops out there.
The only silver lining is the news that they're possibly expanding the bike cop detail.


mike w. said:

Problem is, many times when i pass a CPD car, i see the officer on the 'phone. How are they supposed to enforce the law when they flout it  themselves?

Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

Or on their computer. Head down reading and typing on a device well below eye level - they may well be the worst offenders.

mike w. said:

Problem is, many times when i pass a CPD car, i see the officer on the 'phone. How are they supposed to enforce the law when they flout it  themselves?

Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

What neighborhood does Kass drive it? Leave the celebs/hacks/fam faces out of your psyche lest you drive or ride into another car, bike, kid...
Time in court in Chicago, or our Counties will be a great start, if the badges and their bosses buy into enforcement beyond merely making more stops to raise funds or hassle 'targets'.
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Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

I actually did email John Kass and thanked him for the article, telling him that he deserved to be thanked, just as I felt he deserved to be taken to task for his articles bashing cycling and cyclists.  

As for what will stop texting and driving, nothing can stop it.  To think anything can be done to prevent people form taking action that you can't control is just a waste of time -- how long have we known that you can get a DUI, lose your license, be fined a lot of money, etc., when you drink an drive.  Ryne Sam Hamel absolutely positively knew the law, an knew the consequences, yet he ignored them.  

I think, as someone noted, that societal awareness and pressure is all that can be done, and you hope for the best.  The other day I was riding, saw someone driving and talking on their phone, and I just said to them, through their passenger window as we were going down Monroe street and they were driving badly "heeeeey, get off your phone..." in a very nice way.  He did actually stop talking on his phone, and I said, when we both stopped at a light "thanks, I appreciate that".

good points made here. IMHO this offense falls into the following two categories (make that three)

1) I am only going to send this *one* text

2) Everyone else does it (so it must be OK (i.e. "safe"))

3) I am a careful driver; so it is *OK* for me (yeah right)

Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

As with everything else, only when the law is enforced will it have an effect.  In our world of being bombarded with video and audio messages all the time, PSAs are, as Kass says, likely to be ignored, if not ridiculed. For many people, the inconvenience of having to go to court might be enough to make them stop.  If Kass can see them, surely the police can see them, too.  They are not all responding to murders or shootings on their shifts.  Especially in the neighborhoods where Kass is driving! 

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