Less Phones, Smaller Vehicles, Greater Following Distance

Living and driving in Colorado for 4.5 years I have seen many vehicle accidents and distracted drivers with some terrible consequences. I no longer live in Colorado, but I continue to see the poor habits individuals exhibit which leads to a higher rate of accidents. The driving conditions in Colorado were quite hectic, with many different individuals from various backgrounds. For these reasons, I am always on high alert while driving. Part of this alertness means observing the other drivers, and it is awful to see the number of individuals using their phones while driving. It isn’t just isolated to just one area either; from the front range in Colorado Springs to the mountains, Denver, and Buffalo where I am now, I see an alarming number of drivers who are distracted behind the wheel. For that reason, distracted driving will be the primary focus of this essay.

I have had two very close calls with distracted drivers. The first was during one of my shifts as a pizza delivery driver. I was heading back to the store on a decently windy road, and I noticed the SUV next to begin veering into my lane. I looked over and the driver was texting and driving, so I immediately honked my horn to let them know they were going to hit me if they continued. They seemingly got upset, but I would rather have that reaction than have my truck be hit by a negligent driver. The second instance could have ended much worse. I was on my way to the UCCS field house to ride up with the track team for one of our meets. As I got onto the highway, the lane I needed to be in was clear, but there was a large line of cars slowing to a stop in the lane directly to my left. Suddenly, a Honda Accord going at highway speed hit its brakes extremely late and rear-ended a Subaru Impreza which did the same to another Subaru Impreza in front of it. The first crash victim’s car was totaled, and as the cars collided, the plastic, glass, and metal sprayed off and hit my truck. If the Honda driver had swerved, I likely would have been whom they hit instead.

As for individuals I know who have been hit, my mother was rear-ended last year while stopping for an ambulance coming through an intersection, and the driver who hit her was on her phone. Worse yet, the driver would not stop talking on the phone for several minutes to exchange information until the police arrived on the scene.

Fortunately, in the previous incident mentioned, no one was hurt. That was far from the result of what happened to my best friend’s brother. A few years ago, he was driving home to see his family. All was well until a driver with a snowplow-mounted truck was on his phone and veered over the median, hitting him head-on. He was left with a severe concussion and bruises, and a totaled Ford Contour SVT, an extremely rare car for which he deeply cared for.

In another unfortunate accident, one of my former managers was in a horrific T-bone accident. The driver was distracted and ran a red light, striking my manager at over 50mph and totaling his Subaru Outback. Fortunately, the car saved him from serious injuries.

These stories serve as the consequences of distracted driving which can be even worse, causing deaths. Motor vehicle deaths account for some of the largest causes of death in young individuals, which needs to change for their well-being and everyone else. Cars have become significantly safer, lowering the rate of fatal accidents per occurrence, but the drivers have seemingly become worse. Even if it’s not that the drivers are bad, they are taking their attention away from the road and operating several thousand-pound machines at high speeds. Worse yet, trucks and SUVs are gaining popularity, putting sedan, wagon, and coupe drivers at a higher risk of injury or death by distracted drivers operating those vehicles.

There also seems to be another overlooked area and that is pedestrian deaths. As individuals opt for trucks and SUVs, it becomes more deadly if they strike a pedestrian: “At speeds of 20-39 mph, 3 out of 10 crashes with SUVs (30 percent) resulted in a pedestrian fatality, compared with 5 out of 22 for cars (23 percent). At 40 mph and higher, all three crashes with SUVs killed the pedestrian (100 percent), compared with 7 out of 13 crashes involving cars (54 percent)” (IIHS, 2020). Further, SUVs, light pickups, and vans killed 2,762 pedestrians in 2021, a particularly deadly year for pedestrians involved in motor vehicle impacts (NHTSA, 2023). For comparison, this is more deadly than if a fully occupied Boeing 737 were to crash every month!

This makes sense since SUV and truck hoods sit higher off the ground. Take, for example, the best-selling pickup truck in the U.S., the Ford F-150, it has a hood that sits over 4 feet tall, almost as tall as most sedans! Such tall hoods obstruct visibility to see objects directly in front of the vehicle, such as a child playing or animals. These tall hoods also mean that the headlights are placed higher in the vehicle, becoming more directly level eye-to-eye with sedan, coupe, and wagon drivers, obstructing visibility for them at night.

Fortunately, I believe there are several solutions to this problem. Car manufacturers are providing many new features in their vehicles, safety functions included. The first idea I believe they should add is an app for mobile phones from the manufacturer that you must connect to when driving the car, and it blacks out the mobile device’s screen while the vehicle is on. The car’s Bluetooth phone operations would still be active during this time, and many cars already include SOS and 911 features which wouldn’t be compromised either.

The second solution would be to use insurance discounts and incentives to prevent distracted driving. These programs already exist, and I have one for my car. The key monitoring function here is phone usage while behind the wheel. If the app detects high usage of this behavior behind the wheel, then driver’s insurance rates should increase since distracted driving is high-risk. The opposite should be true; not using a phone while driving means you are more likely to be paying more attention to the road and your surroundings. These apps could also monitor volume levels within the vehicle too, since loud music and passengers can become a distractor.

Punishments should be implemented as well and increased from the current standings. To enforce rules against distracted driving, communities need more traffic police. This costly method might not be very effective without considerable fines. Alaska is probably the strictest in this department, with fines of up to $10,000 and even jail time for up to a year. Montana is the opposite and doesn’t have any laws for texting and driving. To address accidents caused by distracted driving, dashcams could be mandatory. These devices are usually less than a few hundred dollars with installation and can be used to help victims of car crashes better prove who is at fault, potentially saving thousands in deductibles. It already costs hundreds if not thousands to keep motor vehicles on the road, so a one-time purchase of a dashcam can be a worthwhile investment.

The next proposition I suggest is making it harder to own large SUVs and trucks, especially since surveys report that owners of trucks such as the F-150 use their trucks most frequently for commutes, grocery getting, and enjoyment (87%, 70%, & 52% roughly) versus far fewer using the trucks for its intended purpose of towing and hauling (7% & 28% respectively). If the primary uses for such a large vehicle can be made using a sedan or small SUV, then that is the more economical option, because as we know, pedestrians are far more likely to be killed when hit by these large trucks. To use them, I believe you need to obtain a CDL to cut down on the use of such machines not being used for their intended purpose. If someone needs a large truck or SUV for occasional hauling, rental companies like U-Haul have great options of trucks and vans to choose from.

The next legislative suggestion I propose is implementing lower speed limits in areas with many pedestrians, as this would likely lower the speed at which drivers would drive. The main reason this increases safety is that from the data presented on pedestrian survivability ratings by speed and vehicle type, a lower speed limit overall would increase the survival rates when pedestrians are struck by motor vehicles. Even with people speeding, they usually do so in relation to the posted speed limit, for example, a driver who goes 10 over in a 35 is going 45 in actuality. This same driver would likely go 35 in a 25 as well, which is still speeding but lowers the overall risk for drivers and pedestrians alike.

The final solution I suggest is teaching drivers the importance of maintaining a safe following distance. When driving around, one should keep at least 3 seconds worth of space between their vehicle and the one in front of them, in dry conditions, double in wet, and triple in snow, even more so if one doesn’t have adequate snow tires on their vehicle. Larger vehicles also need even more distance because greater mass creates more inertia across all speeds and makes it harder to stop. The reason for proper following distance is that it allows drivers adequate stopping distance in emergency situations. However, when riding passenger, I occasionally observe other drivers following distances and oftentimes find them too close to the vehicle in front of them, less than a car length in extreme cases, which would certainly yield a rear end collision in an emergency stopping situation. Another simple education tip is teaching drivers the importance of properly inflated tires, for the tire to do its job best. To find the proper inflation pressure, it is found on the doorsill of one’s vehicle, on the driver’s side. To manually check, one can purchase a pressure gauge from a local gas station or auto parts store, usually for only a few dollars. Most tire shops will also perform these checks and fill tires to their proper level at no charge, meaning there’s no reason people shouldn’t keep up with this. Temperature changes also affect the tire’s psi, so checking at least every oil change or seasonally is another good idea.

Distracted driving and a multitude of other factors on the road can reap tragic results, but with these proposed solutions, this epidemic will come down significantly. It starts with teaching people the importance of devoting all their attention to the road when driving, and not cell phones. Further, we should educate people on the lethality data that large trucks and SUVs create for pedestrians and make these vehicles only available to people who regularly need them for their intended purposes. Further, we need to teach drivers the importance of a safe following distance and the safety that snow tires can add to make driving in snowy areas safer. Finally, the simple maintenance of properly checking and inflating tires needs to be taught so that car’s tires can do their job most effectively.