By Michelle Avola-Brown, Executive Director, Naples Pathways Coalition
Although vastly underreported, distracted driving kills about ten people every day. From 2020 to 2022, there were at least 160,155 crashes, 8,154 injuries, and 935 deaths directly attributed to distraction in Florida. Even more heartbreaking, these tragedies were completely avoidable.
We have all gotten far too comfortable with multi-tasking when we drive. For years, it has been common to drive while we eat, fix our hair or makeup, entertain or discipline our kids, and share the driver’s seat with our dogs. Adding to the distractions more recently are our cell phones and the technology in our vehicles.
Research shows that drivers manipulate their phones 57% more today than in 2014, and many drivers spend 28% of their driving time actively ignoring the road – nearly a third of the time behind the wheel!
Although many things vie for our attention, taking our eyes off the road for only a few seconds can be deadly. It takes approximately 4.6 seconds to read an average incoming text message – at 55 mph, it’s the equivalent of traveling the length of an entire football field blind.
I get it – it’s hard not to check our email when we’ve been awaiting a response. Our watches and phones vibrate or ding to let us know we received a text or social media notification. The screens in most newer cars dazzle us with a lot more than just radio stations and navigation.
Countless people tell me they are great drivers, they are good at multi-tasking, have a lot to do, and insist reading or sending a text or checking email while driving is no big deal. But what about other not-so-great drivers? What about unexpected road hazards? If you drive distracted, the question is not IF you’ll be in a wreck, but WHEN.
In September 2016, a man was speeding on I-75 while downloading apps, paying bills, and checking email when he suddenly slammed into a family’s SUV. Traffic was stopped for a crash further ahead, but because he was so engrossed in his phone, he had no idea and was actually accelerating at the moment of impact. The distracted driver killed a nine-year-old boy named Logan Sherer and seriously injured his younger sister and parents.
It took nearly two years for Logan’s parents to convince the state’s attorney to criminally prosecute the man who killed their son. Earlier this summer, almost seven years after the horrible tragedy, justice was finally served. The driver, Gregory Andriotis, received a 30-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter and three counts of serious bodily injury. The judge deemed his actions not just distracted driving, but “intentionally reckless driving with no regard for human life.”
The next time you reach for your phone or some other distraction while driving, please ask yourself whether that Snapchat, post, text, or email is more important than someone’s life. I promise, it’s not. It can wait, or you can pull over first. When you’re behind the wheel, please put away distractions and speak up if you are a passenger of a distracted driver.
This summer, Naples Pathways Coalition, StopDistractions.org, the Kiefer Foundation, Blue Zones Project, Naples Velo, and other partners across the state launched the Just Drive – Hands-Free Florida Coalition and campaign to end distracted driving. Our goals are to raise awareness of the dangers and prevalence of distracted driving, curb this dangerous behavior, and strengthen the current laws and penalties for holding/manipulating a phone or other electronic device while driving.
Help us get 10,000 signatures and voice your support for enforceable legislation that will save lives at HandsFreeFlorida.org. Together, we can end distracted driving!
Sources: Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Florida Department of Transportation, North American Actuarial Journal, AAA – The Auto Club Group, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Remington Research Group, Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, National Safety Council, Governors Highway Safety Association, StopDistractions.org, Cambridge Analytics, and Zendrive.
