Prosecutors later argued that texting contributed to the crash, but a judge disagreed. The teen was found delinquent in Guernsey County Juvenile Court of vehicular homicide, a misdemeanor.
Kim Warner, Bice’s sister, says it’s her role today to warn that cell phones and driving simply don’t mix.
AAA agrees that distracted driving can be a killer. But even hands-free, voice-activated communication technology isn’t safe, warns a report released Thursday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Using in-vehicle information systems, such as voice-activated cell phones or Chevrolet’s “MyLink,” can be about as distracting as wrestling with manually operated phones, said the report’s researchers, professors David Strayer and Joel Cooper of the University of Utah.
The report confirms what Mike Belcuore, market manager for AAA Driving School in Ohio, tells students daily.
“We preach against distracted driving in our classes,” Belcuore said.
It’s a lesson that could have saved her sister’s life, Warner said.
“You drive down the road, and you see all these people who are looking down at their phones,” said Warner, who lives in Summerfield, Ohio. “They’re not paying attention to what they’re doing.”
Test results
In-vehicle systems tested by AAA included Chrysler Uconnect, the Mazda 6 Connect, Ford Taurus, MyFordTouch, the Hyundai Sonata Blue Link, the Toyota 4Runner Entune, Buick LaCrosse IntelliLink, Nissan Altima NissanConnect and the Volkswagen Passat Car-Net.
The research ranked the Mazda system as the most distracting, with Chevrolet’s as the least distracting.
“The driver’s primary job is to focus full attention on the job at-hand: driving,” Jeremy Barnes, spokesman for Mazda North American Operations, said in an email to this newspaper. “Our newest and most advanced system, known as Mazda Connect and seen in the heavily revised 2016 Mazda 6 and all of our 2016 lineup, incorporates lessons learned from the previous-generation system that AAA tested.”
The Mazda Connect system features a “driver-focused entertainment system interface with minimal distraction from that primary job, whether that input is through the commander knob or voice recognition,” Barnes added.
Apple, developer of the Siri mobile voice system, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. AAA deemed Siri a highly distracting system. Yet the association said it was optimistic that Apple “is interested in addressing cognitive distraction with Siri,” and that researchers heeded Apple’s feedback into their research methods.
One surprising takeaway from the research is how long drivers can remain distracted even after putting a device down, Belcuore said. A disruption to focus can persist for up to 27 seconds after looking at a device, he said.
That’s nearly half a minute. At 25 MPH, drivers travel the length of nearly three football fields in that time, AAA said.
“Hands-free doesn’t mean risk-free,” Belcuore said.
Waiting to use devices until a motorist is at a red light doesn’t work either, AAA warned.
“The reality is that mental distractions persist and can affect driver attention even after the light turns green,” Marshall Doney, AAA’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
The organization is asking that in-vehicle information systems be made less distracting and easier to use.
“I think it’s time for the manufacturers and designers of all these products to really look at what they can do to make it simpler for the end user,” Belcuore said.
‘On the rise’
Professional truckers and drivers see distractions — and their effects — all the time, said Kevin Burch, president of Dayton trucking firm Jet Express and first vice chairman of the American Trucking Association.
He noted that most accidents are caused by what he calls “four-wheelers.”
“This distracted driving, we feel at the ATA that’s it’s on the rise,” said Burch, who will ascend to be the association’s chairman next year. “We see it more and more on the road. And we don’t like it.”
Amy Anderson, a Kettering resident, has a two-hour commute and usesthe Siri mobile voice system.
“I just think … be safe,” Anderson said. “Don’t text and drive. Don’t talk on the phone and drive.”
Rick Birt, director of strategic partnerships for Students Against Destructive Decisions and a Springfield native, agrees with the report’s findings.
Birt, who works now in Massachusetts, cited an Ohio statistic: Almost 37 percent of “serious and fatal” crashes last year involved young people “who were distracted,” according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.
“That’s a significant number of crashes — and crashes that were 100 percent preventable,” Birt said.
SADD also warns students against drunk driving and advocates for gradually granted driving privileges, anti-violence education in schools and more.
AAA driving students younger than 18 are reminded that it’s illegal in Ohio for them to use their phones in the car, even hands-free, Belcuore said.
“It’s not worth it,” he said. “If you need to make a call, if you need to answer something, pull over, make sure everyone else on the road is safe.”
Staff Writer Lauren Stephenson contributed to this story.
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