Vickroy: Video shows dangers of texting while driving

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Oak Forest High School sophomore Deshawn Mayo rides a golf cart with Illinois State Police Trooper Clare Pfotenhauer while wearing goggles that offer a distorted view of reality. | Larry Ruehl~Sun-Times Media

Text alert

WASHINGTON — For all the criticism and new legal bans, texting by drivers just keeps increasing, especially among younger motorists.

A national survey last month found:

Nearly 2 out of every 10 drivers and half of drivers ages 21 to 24 say they are texting behind the wheel.

Men and women are equally likely to make or accept phone calls, read incoming e-mail or text messages and send messages while driving.

Drivers younger than 25 are two to three times more likely than older drivers to read or send text messages or emails.

AP

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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:11AM

How do you convince an invincible teen that driving distracted or impaired can have deadly results?

You make it real.

What happened to Illinois State Trooper Starlena Wilson is about as real as it gets.

About 9 p.m. on Feb. 27, 2010, Wilson made a routine traffic stop on the Dan Ryan Expressway near 63rd Street. As she waited at the stopped vehicle’s side window for the driver’s license and registration, a Toyota came screeching across the right lane and slammed into her.

Wilson broke a pelvic bone, her right femur and the fibula and tibia in both legs. She survived but had to endure 17 surgeries.

As if the story isn’t horrific enough, the entire incident was caught on video by the camera in Wilson’s squad car.

Last week, drivers education students at Oak Forest High School watched that video.

Trooper Clare Pfotenhauer told the class how the 19-year-old driver of the Toyota was checking a text on her phone when she looked up and realized she was veering from her lane. She quickly grabbed the steering wheel and, overcompensating, crashed into the trooper going 42 mph.

“Do you know what that text said?” Pfotenhauer said. “It said, ‘What’s up?’ ”

Her point, of course, was that no text or phone call is worth the risk of nearly killing someone.

“You guys are the technology generation,” she said. “Your phone is never more than a few feet away from you.”

But she added, “How important is that text or that phone call? When was the last time you received a text that had to be answered immediately, that couldn’t wait five minutes?”

Pfotenhauer then reminded the class of wannabe drivers that Illinois forbids them from using any wireless devices while driving.

“Even at a red light,” she said. “If you’re found guilty of using one, you will lose your license for 90 days.”

Pfotenhauer said the driver of the Toyota was sentenced to four years. Lucky for her, the unrestrained child in her backseat was OK.

“She has to live with herself, knowing she did this,” she said.

Wilson was so traumatized by the incident that she was unable to go back out on to the street. She now works as an investigator, Pfotenhauer said.

“Would you want that on your conscience?”

Jasmine Alzaareir, a sophomore at the school, said the video was hard to watch.

“It was very disturbing,” she said.

Disturbing enough to stick with her for a long time, she added.

The presentation was part of Oak Forest’s Operation Safe Driving program, sponsored by Ford, Allstate and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The second half of the class was devoted to impaired driving. Students lined up in the gym for a chance to drive a golf cart through an obstacle course while wearing fatal vision goggles that simulate being drunk.

As student after student ran over orange cones and veered outside of their designated lanes, it became apparent that even the most confident driver behind the wheel was an accident waiting to happen when impaired.

After her run through the course, sophomore Jessica Neakarse said, “Wow, don’t drive drunk because you’ll probably kill someone.”

Indeed.

Pfotenhauer said statistics show it’s not the drunk who typically gets hurt in such cases, it’s the innocent bystander.

“Could you live with yourself if you hurt, maimed or killed somebody else?” she said.

Pfotenhauer also walked the students through a simulated sobriety test.

First, she had them walk nine steps, heel to toe. Then, she had them put on the fatal vision goggles and try it again.

“I thought I could handle it, but I couldn’t,” said Osama Osaghae, a sophomore. “This may make you have second thoughts about drinking and driving.”

Associate Principal Dan Dunne said the program has been effective in making kids think twice about a lot of things.

Getting them to lay off electronics while driving is no doubt an uphill battle, he said, “but if we can make an impression and maybe save a life or two, it will be worth it.”