Houston Police are investigating a fatal traffic collision Wednesday afternoon in which the driver who died apparently was both speeding and using his cell phone at the time.

Police said a man driving a Ford Taurus on US 290 inbound at Mangum apparently lost control of his vehicle, overcorrected and veered across several traffic lanes, hitting at least two other vehicles in the process.

A pickup truck that his vehicle struck then hit two other vehicles in a chain reaction. The pickup truck’s driver was taken to a hospital in undetermined condition.

Police said the Taurus driver seemed to have been speeding as well as using a cell phone when the collision occurred. They said alcohol did not seem to have been a factor.

Studies show that using a cell phone behind the wheel is as bad as driving while intoxicated. Approximately 5,000 Americans die each year in traffic collisions involving distracted drivers whose attention to the road was diverted by calls or texts while on cell phones.

Texas has no state law banning cell phone use or texting by drivers, unless they are school bus drivers or novice drivers. A state law bans cell phone use while driving in school zones, though school districts are required to post signs to that effect or the law does not apply. Some school districts cannot afford to do that.

However, some Texas municipalities have passed laws making texting by all drivers at all times in all places illegal, including San Antonio and Austin.

Nine states ban all cell phone use by all drivers, and 35 states ban text messaging by all drivers.

Jim S. Adler & Associates urges motorists to hang up and drive. A call or a text cannot be worth a life.

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Longfellow Elementary School students Kaitlynn Sanders, Nautica Winkfield (seated) and Helena Marlowe.

How important is it to stop the deaths and devastation caused by distracted driving? Not enough to compel many state governments — including Texas’ — to do the right thing. And not enough for cell phone companies to set their greed aside and quit fighting safety measures.

But distracted driving dangers have been important enough to spur action by a group of Houston school kids, who seem more wise than many adults. They’re students at Longfellow Elementary School, and what they’ve done is so noteworthy that Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has written about it in his personal blog, which has a photo of the students.

In today’s Fast Lane: The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, LaHood commends the Houston kids for taking “public education into their own hands.”

“Budget problems prevented the City of Houston from posting signs near Longfellow alerting drivers to the dangers of texting and cell phone use while driving in a school zone,” LaHood wrote. “So safety-minded students, parents and area residents joined together to create and post their own signs.”

LaHood’s blog also links to “Neighbors Taking Charge,” an item by the Bellaire Examiner noting efforts by the Longfellow PTA and neighboring Woodside Civic Club to make a bad situation better.

(more…)

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A current TV ad for Chevy Cruze shows a young man and woman kissing on a sidewalk at the end of a date. He enters his car and pulls away.

Not having anything better to do but drive a vehicle through traffic, he looks at his rear-view mirror to punch a button, then is asked by an automated voice, “Good evening, what would you like to do?”

“Facebook news feed,” he answers, vaguely observing the road ahead.

The voice replies, “First post. Jennifer French. Best first date ever.”

A voice-over then plugs the car’s real-time Facebook status feature, capped by the slogan “When the good news just can’t wait.”

Oh — it can’t? Is that the message we should send America about indulging in the distracted driving that kills over 5,000 persons yearly and injures — often seriously — half a million? Or can Internet access wait until arriving safely at a destination? (more…)

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In California, it’s against the law to hold a cell phone while driving. Hands-free devices are allowed, but sacrificing a hand from the wheel — and a large chunk of one’s attention from the road  — is forbidden.

Yet Maria Schwarzenegger was photographed yakking by phone as she drove in California last fall, despite a law her husband helped pass. And on Monday, Disney Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus was stopped by police in North Hollywood as she chatted by phone while driving to a salon for a massage.

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Emmy-nominated actress Jane Lynch, who plays fiery cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester on hit Fox TV show Glee, has joined LG Text Ed, a new campaign to coach parents how to teach teens to use mobile phones responsibly and avoid distracted driving.

Lynch will appear in webisodes for the campaign on driving while distracted, and she also will be a member of its council. The effort is sponsored by LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, a division of South Korea’s LG Electronics.

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Beverly Hills, CA plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan loved to send and receive messages via texts. But apparently he didn’t get one message until too late: Texting while driving kills.

Body reshaper of reality TV’s Heidi Montag, rock music’s Gene Simmons and Vince Neil and modeling’s Janice Dickinson, Ryan, 50, died Monday. It seems the Jeep he was driving veered off the Pacific Coast Highway and crashed upside-down at the bottom of a 200-foot embankment.

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America’s teens seem to have a disconnect between what they’ve been told and what they do. They’ve been told and given fair warning that distracted driving is deadly, killing 6,000 Americans yearly and injuring hundreds of thousands. Yet 86 per cent of teen drivers indulge in distracted driving anyway, often in the form of texting or making cell phone calls while at the wheel.

This finding came via a study conducted by Seventeen magazine and AAA auto club and reported by USA Today. It reported other common forms of distracted driving among teens as eating, adjusting a music device, applying makeup and driving with four or more other teens in the vehicle.

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Death. Taxes. Curbs on drivers texting.

Add the last to life’s inevitabilities, because the times they are a-changing. Thirty states now ban texting while driving, and more technology is arising to take that foolish distracted driving habit out of drivers’ hands.

The latest, reported by USA Today, is software designed to stop texting, emailing or web-browsing via wireless devices while a car is in motion. It’s being developed by an Irving, TX company called . and a Georgia company called Manage Mobility.

Their technology is being offered to government agencies and corporations, which are trying to  squelch the texting tide that’s causing thousands of traffic accident fatalities and injuries and billions of dollars in losses.

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The long Memorial Day weekend ahead is sure to bring car accident misery to Texas roads. But it’s also sure to bring more enforcement of our roadway laws. That’s because Texas Department of Public Safety officers will be out in force. While you play, they will work.

Last year, DPS officers issued more than 8,500 speeding tickets on Memorial Day weekend. They also wrote out 1,937 tickets for failing to wear seat belts and 521 for failing to provide proper child restraints. They also arrested 622 people for drunk driving.

Those kinds of violations again will be targeted for this long weekend, the DPS promises.

(more…)

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