Despite increased enforcement, distracted driving hard to quit

Texting while driving has been illegal for five years in Pennsylvania, yet the number of crashes involving distracted driving has continued to increase since that time.

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and data from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation suggests that the law hasn’t gone far enough to get drivers to put down the phone.

While the number of citations under the state’s distracted driving laws has steadily increased, the number of crashes involving phones has also increased.

Police say that the current law doesn’t seem to change the habits of drivers who need the constant updates provided by their mobile devices.

“People are creatures of habit. Even though it’s against the law, it’s like if you catch me you do, if you don’t, you don’t,” said Joseph Lipsett, Rush Township police chief.

It’s well known that distracted driving kills. Each day around the country, 10 people are killed in a crash related to distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In Pennsylvania, there were 61 fatal crashes in 2016, the most recent year available, involving distracted driving.

The number of distracted driving crashes in general also rose statewide in 2016. PennDOT includes distractions like texting, eating, grooming and talking to passengers.

Lawmakers passed a ban on texting while driving in 2012. It carries a $50 fine, and no points on a license.

Lipsett said in Rush Township, particularly on busy Route 309, most of the citations are given out as the result of another violation.

“If they’re speeding, we can give them two citations or give them one, or a warning for the texting,” he said.

Other police chiefs have criticized the law as too weak, because in many cases it requires police to subpoena court records to prove that the person was texting while driving.

In Harrisburg, lawmakers are looking at several proposals that would strengthen the law.

The state house held a hearing last week, which included testimony from Eileen Miller, whose son Paul Jr. was killed in a crash.

Last year state Rep. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe, proposed a law that would make it illegal to talk on a handset behind the wheel. The penalty could be up to three points on your license.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, said he supports that idea, as well as exploring apps that prevent people from using their phones to text and email while behind the wheel. Whether that would be in the form of incentives on your insurance, or an outright mandate to use them, is to be seen.

“I think that’s something that we really need to consider expanding upon, definitely for youth, for younger drivers,” he said.

One mother’s story

Eileen Miller, whose son was killed on July 5, 2010, on Route 33 in Saylorsburg as a result of a distracted driver, said, “Paul Miller Jr. was only 21 years old when his life was not only tragically but senselessly cut short due to distracted driving,” Miller said. He was set to receive his degree in sociology with a degree in criminal justice, and was starting an internship with the Lackawanna County Juvenile Probation Center Office.

“He wanted to mentor and lead the kids on the right path in life, He wanted to keep them from being a number in the system. This was Paul.”

After police came to notify them of the crash, Miller said, “The time had come when we were finally escorted to the morgue. It was and still is the longest, darkest walk of my life that never seemed to end. We walked into the smallest, coldest room I have ever been in. There I was with my husband, the coroner, and a lifeless body — a body that could not be my son.”

Miller said Paul was traveling northbound and a tractor-trailer was traveling southbound. “Based on eyewitness statements, the driver of the tractor-trailer had been seen for miles driving not only carelessly, but recklessly. He was witnessed speeding, lane switching, and driving erratically. He would eventually lose control of his tractor trailer, becoming jackknifed while veering across two southbound lanes of traffic. He would then cross the grassy medium, and finally crash into the oncoming traffic of the northbound lanes, hitting Paul head on.”

Miller said she later met the driver who admitted he was distracted.

In the meantime, efforts continue to remind drivers about the dangers of distracted driving.

This month AAA has rolled out a campaign equating distracted driving with drunken driving. “Don’t drive intoxicated — don’t drive intexticated” points out that drivers who would never consider driving drunk will willfully take their eyes, hands and minds off the road by using mobile devices.

AAA hopes that education will lead to a reduction in the number of distracted driving crashes like anti-drunk driving campaigns have led to a 50 percent decrease in alcohol-related crash fatalities since the 1980s.