Distracted Driving

(My final project in the class Investigative Reporting Techniques at UCLA Extension.)

Deadly Hit-And-Runs are on the rise, despite more awareness on distracted driving

On Tuesday April 10, 2018, around 12.45 p.m., Frederick “Woon” Frazier was hit by a white Porsche at the Manchester/Normandie intersection in South Central Los Angeles. The driver fled the scene, leaving the 22-year-old bicyclist severely injured.

Frazier later died in hospital.

That makes him just one of many victims of the hit-and-run epidemic that plague California. It’s not known why the crash that killed Frazier occurred. It could have been speeding, driving under the influence or distracted driving. Or something else, only the driver can answer that question.

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Writer and editor of Biking in LA, Ted Rogers, started his blog about ten years ago simply because he “was pissed off.” Longtime bicyclist, Rogers says that the problem with distracted driving has gotten significantly worse over the years. “Our lives are at risk because people are not paying attention to the road.”

2049 people died from hit-and-runs in the U.S. in 2016. That’s a 60 percent increase since 2009 and research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety show that more than one hit-and-run crash occurs every minute on U.S. roads.

“Hit-and-run crashes in the United States are trending in the wrong direction,” says Dr. David Yang, executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. About two thirds of the people who die in hit-and-runs are pedestrians and bicyclists. Rogers continues. “We have forgotten that cars are big dangerous machines that kill people if you don’t use them very carefully.”

The risk of being involved in a crash doubles when you take your eyes off the road for more than two second, according to AAA research. Yet, multitasking while driving is something millions of people do every day. Kait Leonard, a behavioral specialist at a school in Los Angeles, says she talks on the handsfree all the time while driving, and that she texts a lot too. “There are two kinds of texting I do. If it’s a social text, I only text at red lights.” If it’s work related, she both reads and sends texts while driving.

There were 3,157 fatal crashes on American roads in 2016 that involved distraction, according to NHTSA.

Leonard describes herself as rebellious and that threats of citations and punishment are pointless. “The police have to catch me first.” The only thing that would motivate her to stop driving distracted is the thought of hurting someone else.

Distracted driving kills

On a sunny Tuesday in September 2008, just south of Citra in Florida, Margay Schee was on her way home from school, when a semi-truck rear-ended the bus she was in, at approximately 60 miles per hour. The bus caught fire and the thirteen-year-old girl died in the flames. The driver of the semi-truck, a 30-year-old man, said in court that he had not seen the bus, even though he was driving right behind it for over a mile. He later admitted that he had been talking on his phone at the time of the crash.

Almost two thirds of drivers admit to using their cellphone while driving in the past month, according to the 2017 Traffic Safety Culture Index from the AAA. We all know what the honking means when the red light turns to green. It means “Look up from your phone and drive already!” The phones are so firmly glued to our palms and our eyeballs, that it’s now more common to see drivers looking down, than straight ahead. It’s everyday life. But for Elissa Schee, Margay’s mother, everyday life will never be the same again. It’s been almost ten years since the crash, but she can’t hold back her tears while explaining over the phone how she and Margay’s father had to provide DNA, so their daughter could be properly identified. Her body was burnt beyond recognition.

The driver of the semi-truck was sent to prison. Schee says, “He got three years in prison, but I got life.”

The driver said he had never seen the bus. Schee thinks that he was experiencing inattentional blindness, a state where your eyes are open, but since the brain is busy processing something else, it doesn’t register what you see. Multiple studies have been made on the phenomenon.

A leading cause of deaths in traffic

Distracted driving is according to AAA, “the third leading driver-related cause of crash fatalities,” after speeding and DUI. Elissa Schee says she believes distracted driving is the number one cause.

Distracted driving doesn’t have to include a phone though. The man driving the truck who hit Margay’s school bus, was in addition to distracted, extremely sleep deprived. According to phone records he had been on his phone for 37 hours straight.

Lots of people eat while driving. Or update Facebook. Some women use the time behind the wheel to put on make-up.

Patrick Mapleson turned 66 on March 16, 2006. He was looking forward to retirement. The day after his birthday, he was hit by a truck and killed instantly. The driver of the truck had reached down to pick up a bottle of water, when he swerved off to the wrong side of the road where Mapleson was working to fill out pot-holes on Sunrise Highway in Eastport, New York.

Mapleson’s daughter Karen Torres, and Elissa Schee are just two of many advocates working to raise awareness against distracted driving. Torres says that the reason people keep driving distracted is because nothing has happened to them or a loved one, yet. She rhetorically asks, “Are you going to wait until you kill someone?” Both Torres and Schee are consistent in calling it crashes, not accidents. Schee continues, “I’m not doing this because I think she’s coming back, Margay is never coming back. But I speak to whomever I can, because I don’t want them to walk in my shoes.”

In addition to individual advocates raising awareness, organizations and governments are also trying. Automobile Club of Southern California recently launched a campaign called “Don’t Drive Intoxicated – Don’t Drive Intexticated” and April was national Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Santa Monica Lieutenant Saul Rodriguez says that things have gotten better since the law, forbidding the use of cellphones while driving, was introduced in 2007. 33,000 drivers where involved in distracted driving collisions in California that year. In 2017 the number was reduced to 22,000.

“I think we are making some significant progress,” says Rodriguez. “Of course, you want that number to be zero. I don’t think it will ever get to zero, unless we ban phones all together.”

More than three quarters of the U.S. population has a smartphone, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center study. Nearly 97 percent of drivers consider texting or emailing while driving to be a serious safety threat. 92 percent of American drivers believe distracted driving is the number one reason for crash increase. Taking five seconds to look at the phone while driving in 55 mph, is like driving the length of a football field blindfolded.

People have demanding jobs, they are addicted to their phones, they feel pressure from family and friends to respond. And everybody believes they can multitask. Jakquelyn Sullivan, a student at UCLA Extension, is one of them. “I think for me, and everyone else, it’s an overconfidence in our ability to multitask.” Sullivan has gotten two tickets for distracted driving. “After I got the second ticket I started using the earbud that came with my iPhone. But I still text and drive.”

The law and punishments

A fine for distracted driving in California can be up to $161. The laws are different in every state, and the fines varies. And even if you are caught, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be fined. Lieutenant Rodriguez explains. “It depends on how the officer feels, if he wants to give them a ticket or not. There are certain people who will give everybody a ticket, even their own mother. And there are officers who are in the opposite end.”

For this article I requested a ride-along with the Los Angeles Police Department the see how officers deal with distracted driving, but I was denied. Officer Drake Madison responded in an email that “Motorist receive citations when officers observe the violations, but we can't stop everyone. It is everyone's responsibility to put the phone down when driving.”

Educating drivers or punishing them with fines are two different approaches to the same problem, and what works for one driver may not for another. Kait Leonard says that the risk of being caught doesn’t deter her from texting and driving. Jakquelyn Sullivan is the opposite. “I’m very cheap so for me the motivation is the money.”

There are blocking apps available, like Apple’s iPhone “Do Not Disturb While Driving” feature, that has shown a small reduction in the habit. Sullivan had the app installed but turned it off because it automatically sent people a return-text that she was driving, and she found that annoying.

The death of Frederick “Woon” Frazier is still an unresolved crime. On May 11, the South Traffic Division booked a 23-year-old woman named Mariah Banks on felony charges. LA Streetsblog reports that Banks turned herself in after being identified as the driver. Her first court date is set for June 8. In California a driver leaving the scene of a crash involving an injury or death, faces up to four years in jail and/or up to a $10,000 fine.