Distracted Driving On The Rise In Minnesota, And Police Are Cracking Down
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Distracted driving remains the leading cause of all injury and property damage crashes in Minnesota.
It's also one of three top factors in all deadly accidents, ahead of alcohol.
So what does it take to convince drivers of all ages to put down their phones or food and concentrate on driving? Sadly, the answer comes too late for the families of 61 people killed in Minnesota last year by distracted drivers, like Rhonda Maurer.
"He was the rock in so many people's lives," she said of her Uncle Chuck. "I don't want anybody else to feel this pain that my family is going through, because we're never going to get them back. All we have are memories."
Rhonda's uncle Chuck Maurer and her cousin Cassy were killed last July on Highway 10 near Becker. Their lives ended by a 17-year-old driver who was posting to Facebook instead of watching the road.
"They deserved to live," Rhonda Maurer said. "Chuck just got his second lease on life with his heart surgery. And Cassy was 10 - she didn't even have a chance."
That driver blew through a red light at 70 miles an hour, slamming into the family as they came home from a library.
"One text, one phone, call one email is not worth the lives of other people, or your own life," Maurer said. "It's not worth it."
"Any trooper will tell you the worst part of the job is having to tell a family member a loved one is not coming home," Minnesota State Trooper Chris Lohmer said.
That's why the Minnesota State Patrol is watching for, and pulling over offenders. The first offense is $50, but repeat offenders will get a $225 fine.
What makes distracted driving so frightening is that it happens literally in the blink of an eye. The average distraction is about three seconds -- take your eyes off the road at highway speed, and you've already traveled the length of a football field.
On board videos from Triple A's Foundation for Traffic Safety, shows teens confronting moments of terror -- the result of taking both eyes and concentration off the road. Luckily, all the accidents were minor.
"This crash had such a horrific outcome for this family," State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Schweigart said.
Schweigart says while highway fatalities continue to fall, the accident rate is still too high. We're having about the same number of crashes as back in 2006.
"We're seeing more and more fatal crashes being caused by drivers being distracted by the use of phones here in Minnesota," Schweigart said.
Automakers are adding safety features specifically targeting driver inattention, like blind spot detection technology.
Salesman Jim Rue showed WCCO a new Grand Cherokee with adaptive crusie control. If a driver doesn't sense danger, lasers will, which automatically apply the brakes to avoid crashing.
"If you're not braking hard enough, it senses you will have a collision and it will enhance the braking you're doing," Rue said.
But those safety features come in only the newest vehicles on our roads -- it still comes down to driver responsibility.
"If this driver had been attentive, there's no reason the driver wouldn't been able to stop at that red light," Schweigart said.
That one stop would've meant the world to Rhonda Maurer.
"We don't ever get to physically hug or hold," she said. "Don't get to sit down and have Thanksgiving dinner, which is coming up right around the corner, or Christmas."
Carlee Bollig, 17, will make her first appearance in Sherburne County District Court on Monday. She's charged with six counts in the Maurer crash.. including criminal vehicular homicide and driving without a valid license.