USACR/Safety Center raises awareness on distracted driving

Megan Warman was an 18-year-old student at Crestview High School in Florida.

She played volleyball, had two jobs and was attending Northwest Florida State College through a duel enrollment program and scholarship.

Warman was on her way to class when authorities said she sent a text message while driving. Warman’s vehicle veered off the road into the median and rolled over at least six times.

She was left in a coma for 11 days.

On Feb. 7, 2011, Warman’s life was cut short after she died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Since her death, Warman’s uncle and legal guardian Rusty Fine has been an advocate in the ban against texting while driving.

It happens every single day — someone behind the wheel is distracted while driving, whether it’s eating, talking on the phone, grooming or like in Warman’s case — texting.

To raise awareness on the issue, the U.S. Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center hosted its first-ever distracted driving event on Fort Rucker June 4. 

The event titled, "So, you think you can drive...distracted?" featured 35 soldiers and Department of the Army civilians who took turns driving through a one-mile course as multiple distractions were presented to the driver.

The course, a replica for routine driving, was meant to serve as an example of what could happen if a person is distracted while driving. 

During the course, drivers were evaluated as distractions, such as someone talking, an incoming call, texts, picture messages and dummy pop-ups, were introduced to the driver.

Once the drivers completed the one-mile course, they were debriefed and sent to a tent to hear from special guest Fine. Fine briefly talked about his niece's incident and played a video for the drivers.

Brig. Gen. Timothy Edens, commanding general of the USACR/Safety Center, said the event was part of National Safety Month, and was an assessment to gather information for an awareness package the safety center is planning to develop and distribute Army-wide. 

Edens said fatal accidents are more likely to occur in the summer for the Army, and the National Safety Month is a perfect time to bring attention to the issue of distracted driving.

“The fact is we are all guilty of driving distracted and putting ourselves and others at risk when we’re on the road,” he said.

The truth is, Edens said, is anything that causes a person to take their eyes off the road can cause an accident.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011, more than 3,300 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver.

“Keep in mind that number reflects only those fatalities where distracted driving was determined to be a cause, which can be difficult and often goes unreported,” Edens said.

Edens said drivers who use handheld devices are four times more likely to be involved in crashes that could cause an injury.

“Texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to crash than driving undistracted,” he said. “That’s a pretty significant number. Sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes from the road an average of 4.6 seconds so if you’re going 55 mph, you just moved the length of a football field literally unconscious.”

According to Edens, in June of 2011, more than 196 billion text messages were sent or received in the U.S.

According to Dr. Joe McFadden, USACR/Safety Center Human Factors Directorate research psychologist, recent studies have shown there’s been an increase in distracted driving injuries and fatalities.

McFadden said there are three types of driving distractions — cognitive, manual and visual.

Cognitive is taking one’s mind off the road. Manual is taking one’s hands off the wheel, and visual is taking one’s eyes of the road.

“The biggest problem is most people don’t realize just how dangerous it is,” McFadden said. “They don’t know the statistics. Most young people (who) are texting and driving these days are completely unaware, and of course, they feel also that they can defy the odds.” 

Most distracted driving situations tend to occur when the driver feels the most comfortable with his or her actions, McFadden said.

“I wouldn’t at all be surprised if most people who are operating their vehicle (and texting) have found themselves in the other lane or going off the side of the shoulder of the road, only to jerk the vehicle back into the road,” he said. “If you do it one or two times, three or four times and it doesn’t result in an accident, you start to become over confident. They continue doing this behavior until, unfortunately, (they) do experience a head-on collision that results in a fatality.”

Warrant Officer Katie Utley, a volunteer driver in the event, said she learned a lot of valuable tips from the drive and realized how dangerous distracted driving can be.

“(The instructors) gave me some good pointers for future reference to either not answer (the phone), pull off the road or ask somebody else to answer it for you,” she said. “I’m trying to get better at doing that. It’s important. It affects a lot of people. A lot of people are getting into accidents (and) dying when they shouldn’t have because of this issue.”

At the end of the event, all drivers signed a pledge committing to drive phone free.