MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Sometimes seeing is believing, and a first-hand look at distracted driving is what News13’s Brandon Herring got with the help of AAA Carolinas.
The organization’s Traffic Safety Manager Stephen Phillips set up a driving course intended to demonstrate how distractions negatively affect driving.
“Our goal is to show and demonstrate you just can’t do two things at once very well,” Phillips said.
Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation show distracted driving is a growing problem. In 2013, approximately 424,000 people were hurt in motor vehicle accidents involving distracted driving. That number is about 3,000 more injuries than the year before. Also, in 2013 3,154 people died in accidents involving a distracted driver, according to the USDOT.
“Who doesn’t know not to text and drive?” Phillips asked. “Yet you constantly see people texting and driving. So we have to do 
everything in our power to show and demonstrate that yes, this is bad… that you are not capable of doing both very well.”
Phillips set up the driving course at the Swamp Fox Entertainment Complex where the owner and manager allowed plenty of space for the demonstration.
The driving text start with a few practice laps to get familiar and then another lap to time Brandon as he drove without any distractions. He was able to drive a lap in 36 seconds.
The next part of the test involved responding to simple text messages such as “What is 3 plus 3?” and “What time are you coming home today?” Brandon’s time increased to 48 seconds – a significantly slower time.
“When you’re texting those are the things that happen while you drive,” Phillips said after watching Brandon’s slower lap. “You actually stopped in the middle of a curve to try to make the text and complete that, and then you continued your drive. That doesn’t happen in real life.”
So to make it more realistic, Phillips challenged Brandon to maintain his speed just like he would try to do on a regular road.
Half way through the course at a normal speed Brandon ran over two traffic cones marking the edges of the driving path. The next loop around, it happens again – four more cones run over.
“I really wasn’t trying to run over those cones,” Brandon explained. “I definitely didn’t mean to do that. It was just harder than I thought it would be.”
That is something driving instructor Mike Doneff hears all the time. He is the owner of Safe Driving School in Myrtle Beach.
“I don’t think [people] believe there’s a big problem with that because they’re glancing down,” Doneff said. “They’ve done it.”
Doneff helped oversee the driving test while sitting in the front passenger seat. He said Brandon unconsciously added to his distraction during the second loop at normal speed. Just moments before he ran over additional cones, he was talking to news photographer Curtis Graham who was shooting video from the back seat.
That may not seem like much, but it is another small cognitive distraction on top of everything else. It shows why cell phones plus other people in a vehicle can be an especially dangerous combination – particularly if those passengers are rambunctious teenagers.
“They’re doing all kinds of things other than driving,” Doneff said.
The AAA Traffic Safety Foundation has found even using voice commands for hands-free calling and texting will distract you. Simply put, it still takes your mind off the road.
Phillips says if you just cannot keep yourself from using your phone while driving, you need to make a change.
“You need to put them in the glove box or somewhere where you can’t reach them,” he explained. “You have to do something to change that because you can’t control the behavior. It’s almost like an addiction.”
For parents trying to drive that message home to their children, Doneff suggests a contract designed with parent and child together. It should ban cell phone use and other concerning behavior.
“They can say no friends in the car or one friend in the car the first three or four months. This is what happens; this is the consequence if you do have that more than one friend,” Doneff explained. “You can only go from point A to point B, and if you don’t do that here’s the consequences.”
Phillips said he reminds his own children of drivers who made just one small mistake and crashed while texting.
“Is it realistic [to ask them to put their phones away while driving]? Yeah, it is realistic because I want my kids to come home,” Phillips said. “So I demand my kids not to be on a cell phone.
“When we get to that point where we get into that crash, there’s no do-over.”
Both men say parents can have the most influence on their children when it comes to using cell phones in the car. If parents put their phones away while driving, their kids will learn not only that it is possible, but that it is normal.
Phillips says AAA also does not believe in the effectiveness of apps that promise to block texts and other notifications while driving. He said most people can find a work-around, so it is better to change behavior instead of hoping an app will make a difference.
