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April 23, 2014
sportiani» (Obstruer
Texting and Driving Crackdown
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3
this m onth to increase the aw are
ness of the dangers of driving
while distracted from cell phones,
text m essages and other devices.
The tagline is simple: U Drive.
U T ext. U Pay.
The $8.5 m illion cam paign has
also led to some “high visibility
enforcem ent” of distracted driv
ing laws across the nation, in
cluding police agencies in Oregon
and W ashington.
Portland police spokesperson
Pete Sim pson said while the Rose
City hasn’t officially increased pa
trols for the effort, the police
bureau’s traffic division is always
on the lookout for distracted driv
ers and run enforcem ent m issions
som ewhat frequently and som e
times in cooperation with other
Metro area law enforcement agen
cies.
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Adm inistration released a
30-second anti-texting-and-driv-
ing ad that has been popping up
across TV screens and mobile
devices this m onth. The spot
shows a group of young people in
a car while the driver checks a text
m essage in m otion; suddenly the
car is plowed into by a large truck
flipping the vehicle over multiple
times. The driver dies.
O re g o n
D e p a rtm e n t
of
T ransportation’s Shelley Snow
says that the distractions avail
able to m otorists, bicyclists, and
even p e d e stria n s co n tin u e to
grow.
According to ODOT statistics,
between 2008 and 2012,65 people
were killed in crashes where a “dis
tracted driver” was a contributing
factor.
Page 5
“Bottom line is: driving is a
com plex task and too m uch is at
risk to not pay attention to that
task,” says Snow, “We need to
continually im press upon people
- anyone using the transporta
tion system - that it’s too im por
tant to not pay attention when
you are out and about. You can
relax later, but first get to your
destination safely by focusing on
d riv in g /b ik in g /w a lk in g ... and
d o n ’t get distracted.”
At the top o f this year, an O r
egon law went into effect dou
bling the maximum fíne drivers can
be finalized for using their mobile
devices in transit to $500.
Oregon State Police stopped
and handed out citations to over
5,100 “d istracted d riv ers” last
year.
Portland C om m unity C ollege
student Lois Peatree know s first
hand the dangers o f distracted
driving. H er friend died last year
in a crash where texting and driv
ing was a factor. She asks that
people restrict them selves from
what can often be a burning tem p
tation for people her age to reach
for the phone at the wheel.
“People die every day from it,”
she says “It’s scary. Your mom
could die, your dad could die, and
your best friend could die. You
could die! T h at’s a big word! You
could ju st not be here.”
Sounding off on
Texting and Driving
Portland residents offer their views
by D onovan M. S mith
I ’ll sign anything on that,” she says.
One young driver says though
he knows the dangers of texting and
driving, it’s a habit he’s been work
ing to break.
A recent close call
served as even more m o
tiv a tio n fo r D a v id
Seraya, who said he tried
it on the freeway one
day and alm ost got in a
car accident.
T he P ortland O bserver
Laws and data are one thing, but
adherence to safety is another. We
took to the streets to get some ev
eryday Portlanders
to speak out on the
issue of texting and
driving.
“It’s crazier than
drinking and driv
ing. I don’t know, I
think that people
should get fined,
like real big time,”
says
M y ld red -----------------------
Silvia, “Nothing’s Myldred Silvia
that important. To
let you take your
eyes off the road.
Kids are not getting
it.”
Valerie McBee
Keegan “Kaz” Alberts
says she has long
been a “stickler” for
a d h erin g to the
laws of the road,
especially in terms Valerie McBee
o f distracted driv
ing. However a new
p hone has been
tem p tin g her to
break her practice.
“Now that I’ve
got this new phone
David Seraya
I’m like—ah!— I’m
photos by D onovan
trying to leave it in
■■■■
M. S mith /T he
the back seat so I
Jennifer Carter
P ortland O bserver
don’t even have the
temptation,” she says.
Keegan “Kaz” Alberts says he
Jennifer Carter says she was doesn’t drive on account of his epi-
aware of the doubling of fines that lepsy, but whenever a friend in the
Oregon put into place this year, but driver’s seat whips out their phone
says it’s not enough. Her proposal on the road he says he tries to take
would be a few days in jail to hammer it from them.
at the potential deadly conse-
“I just think it’s stupid,” he says,
quences from a distracted driver.
His advice to people who want to
“I think they should do some jail text and drive: pull over, or don’t do
time, I really think they should. And it at all.
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