But it’s not drugs, alcohol or even a sweet tooth that plagues Dulin. It’s her cell phone.
And it nearly cost the 18-year-old senior at Orchard View High School her life.
Dulin suffered only bumps and bruises after she crashed into the back of a school bus Monday morning on Apple Avenue while reaching for her dropped cell phone. The Chrysler LeBaron she was driving was wedged about three-quarters of the way under the bus, its top half completely peeled off.“I didn’t even have time to push the brakes by the time I saw the bus,” Dulin said. “I’m glad I went down to pick up the phone, but at the same time, if I hadn’t been talking on the phone I wouldn’t have hit the bus.”
Dulin’s accident is not unique.
As cell phones and text messaging have grown in popularity, so have the number of crashes stemming from their use.
Nationwide, nearly 6,000 people died in crashes in 2008 where a driver was distracted by everything from cell phones to food, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In Michigan, 22 people died, although the number is likely higher because it’s often unclear whether a crash is the result of a driver using a cell phone or other technology, said Anne Readett, spokeswoman for the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
“That’s a horrifying statistic when you consider that accidents caused by drivers using cell phones, texting, or taking their eyes off the road are entirely preventable,” U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Tuesday at a press conference in Washington D.C. announcing the creation of FocusDriven, a national organization which advocates banning talking on cell phones while driving.
Read more about the dangers of using a cell phone while driving.
“It’s kind of hard to talk and drive,” Dulin said, adding she now plans to keep her cell phone turned off while driving. “People do it all the time but everybody does it and they don’t think that stuff like this happens but it does.”
The problem isn’t just confined to teens.
In his more than 20 years at the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety, James Albright says he’s seen women fixing their hair and makeup behind the wheel, men shaving on their way to work, and everyone from teens to adults chatting on their cell phones during the morning commute.
“Just that split second of taking your eyes off the road for two seconds could be tragic,” said Albright, who owns Lakeshore Precision Drivers Training, a Grand Haven-based drivers education school.
But drivers 20 and younger do make up the biggest majority of distracted driving crashes, according to a November report from the non-partisan Pew Internet & American Life Project.
And some organizations, including FocusDriven, consider cell phones to be one of the leading causes of distracted driving.
Nineteen states, the District of Columbia, and Guam have laws banning the use of cell phones to send text messages while driving, according to distraction.gov, a federal Web site devoted to reducing distracted driving. Six sates, including the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, also ban the use of hand-held devices while driving.
Nationwide, 26 percent of teens ages 16 to 17 say they have sent text messages behind the wheel, according to the Pew report.Legislation is pending in the Michigan legislature that would prohibit drivers from using cell phones to send text messages or e-mails behind the wheel. Legislators are debating whether the law should permit police to stop a motorist solely for texting or whether the motorist must also be violating another traffic rule.
Passing the ban wouldn’t bode well with many teens, including Luke Engelman, a junior at Reeths-Puffer High School who says he sends dozens of texts throughout the day, more than a few of which are from the front seat of his 1992 Saturn Twin-Cam.
“You can do it safely,” Engelman, 16, said. “Half the time I don’t even look at my phone — I know where all the keys are.”
While some people may feel confident about their ability to send text messages and talk on a cell phone while driving, local law enforcement agencies are asking drivers to use caution when using such devices.
“What phone call or conversation needs to take place when you’re on the road in traffic absent some emergency,” ,” Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler asked.