“LOL.” “Where U at?” “Yeah.” Single words, shorthand or fragments of sentences that flow from cell-phone keyboards millions of times each day. But in a few notorious cases, those words have led to carnage on the road at the hands of texting drivers, an increasingly dangerous form of distracted driving.
AT&T, the second-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. and one of the top companies putting cell phones in the hands of young drivers, is stepping up its campaign to stop the texting road menace. An 11-minute video produced by the company and released this week shows the heartbreaking consequences that can unfold in the few seconds a driver averts his or her glance from the road to a phone display.
Patrick Sims, who was 17 when he slammed into a bicyclist while texting LOL to a friend on a Denver highway in 2005, notes that if someone had asked him to close his eyes for five or six seconds while driving, he would never have done so.
“But if someone said read this text … I had done it numerous times before,” he tells viewers.
The video also features a Missouri state trooper describing the scene where Mariah West, a senior one day short of high-school graduation, flew off the road and hit a divider after texting “where u at?” Friends of Mariah, who died in May 2009, recall her addiction to texting and her ability to multitask.
Widespread Problem
The Department of Transportation says 5,500 people fell victim to distracted driving on U.S. highways last year, although that number held steady at 16 percent of all traffic fatalities after a sharp increase the previous four years.
Texting is specifically banned in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam, although in a controversial survey in September the Highway Loss Data Institute, which is operated by…