Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Report details how cellphones, road rage contribute to wrecks

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 06:27:46 -0500

Posted on Tue, Feb. 10, 2004

Report details how cellphones, road rage contribute to wrecks
By Chris Neely
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Sherri Halse said she thought her number was up when she tried
to answer her cellphone while driving along Interstate 20 in
Arlington a couple of months ago.

"I was fishing through my purse for the phone, not paying
attention to the road," said Halse, 35, of Fort Worth. "By the time
I looked up, there was a car really close to me, and I was
swerving off the side of the road. It was pretty frightening."

She regained control, but Texas Department of Public Safety
officials said an increasing number of drivers have not been so
lucky.

The department said Monday that 1,032 accidents in 2001 were
attributed to cellular telephone use, as were 716 in the last
three-quarters of 2000. Fifteen people died in cellphone-related
accidents during those two years.

Also, 219 accidents in 2001 were related to road rage, compared
with 90 from April to December 2000. Two people were killed,
according to the report.

To be included in the DPS report, deaths attributed to road rage
must have been caused by the accidents -- not subsequent
altercations, such as a fight along the shoulder of the road,
officials said.

The figures are the first available since the accident report forms
were changed in April 2000 to include cellphones and road rage as
contributing causes. DPS spokeswoman Lisa Block cautions
against drawing conclusions because of the lack of full-year to
full-year comparisons.

"We can't really trend anything yet," she said. "But we do believe
the numbers will increase as the new forms are used more by
law-enforcement officials, and as they become aware of the option
to report cellphone use and road rage as contributing factors."

Accidents related to road rage and cellphones represent fewer
than 1 percent of total accidents, which were 318,990 in 2000 and
323,958 in 2001.

Scott Cooner, an associate research engineer for Texas A&M
University's Texas Transportation Institute, is not surprised by the
road rage numbers. Focus groups and telephone interviews
conducted by the institute in 2001 and 2002 found road rage on
the rise in the Metroplex, he said.

"People act differently on the road," Cooner said. "They're much
more likely to cut in line in their vehicle than at the supermarket.
Somehow, it's become more acceptable."

In recent years, cities such as Arlington, Fort Worth and Southlake
have instituted hot lines to report road rage. But unless an officer
witnesses such incidents, little can be done beyond sending a
letter to the driver's home, DPS officials said.

New York and New Jersey, meanwhile, have banned the use of
hand-held cellphones while driving. The Texas Legislature last
year considered but did not pass four bills that would have
restricted cellphone use. Block, though, expects the issue to come
up again during the next session.

"We can't really say what the legislators will do, but we think
they'll be interested in these numbers, especially as we start to
get better numbers later on," she said.

But until drivers pay more attention to the road and less to what's
going on inside their cars, accidents are not likely to decrease,
said DPS trooper Lonny Haschel of Hurst.

"It's just the way of our society," he said. "Times change and
technology advances, but I used to run across the same types of
things 10 years ago. Instead of cellphones, though, it was, 'I
dropped my day planner.' "

Even without new laws, at least one cellphone may not be
causing many more problems on Metroplex roadways.

"Now I have the thing where you hook it to your ear," Halse said.
"I didn't want to become a statistic."

What you can do

To report aggressive or reckless driving, drivers in Arlington should
call (817) 459-8984; in Fort Worth, (817) 392-SAFE (392-7233);
and in Southlake, (817) 481-2868.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/7918049.htm
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