Tag: distracted driving

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Traffic Law Vs. Safe Driving

Here’s a question that came up during a recent discussion about some of Washington’s traffic laws: Is obeying the law enough to make me a safe driver? If not, what is the standard?

A while back I had a conversation with my brother-in-law, a skilled carpenter. We were discussing building codes, and he said that if you build your house to code, you have a substandard house. His point was that code compliance is the bare minimum you can do in construction. There are building techniques that exceed code requirements that make your home stronger, more weather-tight, and capable of lasting many more years.

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Who Doesn’t Buckle Up?

Instead of a reader asking me a question, this week I have a question for you: Do you know anyone that’s received a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt? It’s entirely possible that you don’t. Washington ranks in the top five states for seatbelt use, with close to 95 percent of vehicle occupants wearing a seatbelt. The four states ahead of us are mostly neighbors; Oregon, California, Hawaii (sort of a neighbor), and Georgia, the geographic outlier. The state with the lowest rate of seatbelt use? New Hampshire, at about 68 percent. Its state motto is, “Live free or die.” I’m pretty sure General John Stark was not thinking about seatbelts when he wrote that in 1809, but that’s the reason many New Hampshirites (is that what you call them?) give for why they don’t want a seatbelt law.

How do we know the percentage of seatbelt users in each state? Because there are people watching you drive. Creepy? It’s not as bad as it sounds. The Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) conducts annual seatbelt observations using trained observers to watch for seatbelt use at pre-identified locations around the state. If you want all the details about this spying (it’s not really spying) you can read the full report at the WTSC website.

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Bees, Texting, and Impaired Driving

Q: I was talking with my kids about car accidents caused by drivers trying to rid their car of spiders or wasps or flying insects. We are wondering what percentage of accidents are insect distracted? Is having a bee in your car more distracting than being a drunk driver?

A: I was hoping to base my answer on the most current research available regarding insect-involved collisions, but apparently the researchers don’t care that much about insects that cause crashes. Instead, I’ll refer to an older study that includes bugs as a crash factor.

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Hyundai’s Irresponsible Ad

This isn’t actually a PSA; it’s a criticism of a car advertisement. I didn’t want to give any attention to a car company that tacitly endorses high-risk driving behavior in their advertising, but I can’t help it; this needs to be called out. The purpose of features like lane departure notification aren’t so that you can take more dumb risks while you’re driving; they’re there to protect us from our own inevitable human failures even when we are trying to pay attention.

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Distracted Driving for Commercial Drivers

Q: The distracted driving law has an exception for commercial drivers, but what is the definition of that? I drive a box truck used for construction. It’s registered in the company name and has the company name all over it. I have a regular driver license. On any given day, I receive a minimum of ten calls from the office or customers and make about the same number of outgoing calls. Yesterday, I pulled to the side of the road five times to talk on the phone and twice a cop rolled past to see if I was in need. For the other calls, I was able to use the headset or sent them to voicemail, much to the chagrin of the callers. Am I considered commercial or not?

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