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Todd Grooten commutes to Indianapolis from Fort Wayne twice a week. It’s about a two-hour drive, he says – a boring two-hour drive.
When he was a boy and went on car trips, he’d never look out the window and think, "This is boring." But he wonders whether his attention span has shrunk because so many gadgets are available.
To entertain himself on the commute, Grooten texts.
"I would say I probably do it the whole way," he says. "I don’t just text. I check my Facebook. I use instant messenger, too."
Vlingo, a mobile application vendor, released a survey in May that found that nearly 30 percent of people with a mobile device send text messages, e-mails or instant messages while driving.
In Indiana, it’s illegal for those 18 and younger to text while driving. In September, President Obama banned federal workers from texting while they drive.
"I think there are very few people with a cell phone that haven’t done that at some point," says Ron Galaviz, the public information officer for the Fort Wayne district of the Indiana State Police. "We know it’s on the rise. We know it’s just as dangerous as drunk driving. It’s just as dangerous as fatigued driving."
Since last year, Galaviz has worked with trauma services at Parkview Hospital to educate the public about the dangers of texting while driving. While the information is geared toward the public, he and others in the program have spoken to driver-education classes and area high schools.
The Indiana law affects those 18 and younger, and they need to know about it – and about the dangers, he says.
Michael Joyner, public information officer for the Fort Wayne Police Department, says he’s glad the law is in place and would like to see its scope broadened.
"I think it’s safe to say that there has been an increase in automobile accidents due to that distraction," he says. "I’m looking forward to the day when that law encompasses everybody behind the wheel, and not just teenagers."
Grooten has never been in a car accident while texting. He has, however, been in one while talking on the phone. It was December 2006, and he says he was driving only 25 mph.
His car was totaled.
Despite the increased focus on texting while driving, Grooten thinks it’s actually more dangerous to drive and talk on the phone than text.
"This may sound kind of hypocritical, but I really don’t like to talk and drive," he says. "If I’m texting and driving, I can put the phone down whenever, and I’m not worried about telling the person, ‘Let me call you back.’ "
Galaviz, however, says he thinks texting is more dangerous because the driver has to concentrate on typing. Nowadays, he says, kids will say, "I have the keyboard memorized. I know where the keys are without looking."
It’s difficult to put a number on texting-related accidents because the police classify accidents together if they were caused by a telecommunication device; Galaviz has no way of knowing which accidents are because of texting or talking.
Plus, he says, it can be easy to fib and say, "Oh, sure I was on the phone, but an animal ran in front of me, and that’s why I got in an accident."
He cites a crash in June when a 16-year-old girl was ejected from her car after flipping it at a curve. According to the state police’s news release, "Text messages had been sent and received on (her) cell phone just prior to the crash and … this may have been a contributing factor."
Joyner tells of a student killed recently after striking a utility pole while texting and driving.
Despite Grooten’s insistence that it’s more dangerous to talk on the phone than text, he says his friends harass him about the frequency of his text messages.
" ‘You shouldn’t do that,’ " says Grooten, mimicking his friends and family by making his voice a little higher. "I guess in response to them, I kind of pooh-pooh it, but I mean, people do get into accidents when they’re doing it. When I drive back and forth to Indy, it’s amazing the number of people I see on their phones, either texting or talking or who knows what they’re doing."
