Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/409537
Voices channel 19 10 | Overdrive | November 2014 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' ChannEl 19 blog at overdriveonline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. I couldn't help but think of my colleague Wendy Parker's prescient- ly-titled "Just say no to stupid" blog post from this summer. It cut pretty hard into the issue of distraction and in-cab mobile device use. When a driver "starts posting pic- tures to social media of himself doing phenomenally stupid and dangerous things" while driving, Wendy noted, offering a particular example of such, "he involves every single driver on the road." Weeks later, an example surfaced that, in Parker's words, made "a case for every ambulance-chasing lawyer in the world." The driver had posted pictures to Facebook that clearly were taken from the driver's seat while he was driving. For the plaintiff 's attorney, it didn't matter whether anything was tied to the time of the accident, in which the auto's driver was critically injured. The key moment came with a deposi- tion in which the truck driver admitted taking pictures while driving. "While none of the photos or com- ments was posted at the time of the wreck, [the attorney] said he was able to use them to establish a pattern of distracted driving," as reported by the Daily Report Online. The result: "$1 million settlement from the trucker's company and insurance carrier." Think before you open the shutter – something too many, as Parker suggests, just aren't doing. After her comment on the Facebook profile she mentioned in her story, here's what she says followed: I'd say about half the comments after that were distinct suggestions for where I could stick it. I was told he was a "professional" and knew what he was doing – by other truck drivers. He responded that "he was here to stay" and that "I better get used to it." The plaintiff 's bar salutes him, no doubt. WHTM, the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg, Pa., reports that more truckers are taking the issue of four-wheeler distraction into their own hands, using the horn to let motorists know that they've been spotted with their eyes on some- thing other than the road. Usually that means the cell- phone in their hand. And it's not just four-wheelers, as Jeff Whitt, responding to a post to Overdrive's Facebook page, noted. "Just about got hit in Milwaukee today" by a texting truck driver, he said. "Thank goodness for a big shoulder." The issue of whether using the horn to knock a distracted driv- er back to attention is lawful, or even safe, was part of the WHTM report. You'll recall the recent case of the trucker who was pulled over after he did much the same when he noticed an Illinois state troop- er whiz by him at well upward of 70 mph with his hands on his cell phone. That officer was right on the verge of citing the truck driver for "unlawful use of horn" when his conscience, in the presence of the driver's dashcam, got the better of him. Here's what WHTM says it was told by Pennsylvania State Police: "They said that the horn may only be legally used in emergency cir- cumstances, but added that a case of a driver not looking at the road while traveling can certainly be considered an emergency." Overdrive reader Dave Bayne questions whether it might just be time to "use some common sense and focus on being careful and stop fancying ourselves as enforcers. … Maybe people should just learn to drive, from cyclists to 'trained' professionals." Weigh in yourself via the Sept. 11 post to the blog. Photos net huge settlement Air horns to distract the distracted A recent lawsuit shows it's best to keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road while driving. For more on the case, visit the Sept. 27 post on the Channel 19 blog. What effect would removal of the 2013 34-hour-restart restrictions have on highway safety? Do you use your horn to call out anyone using a cellphone behind the wheel? OverdriveOnline.com poll No, but I try to get their attention in other ways 5% Never 34% Every day 15% Only very rarely 28% A few times a week 18%