Multi-tasking the enemy of safe driving

Many pylons were harmed in the making of this story.

It was a Friday massacre on a closed track so that SGI and the RCMP could reinforce the consequences of distracted driving. One by one, members of the media hopped behind the wheel to navigate a weaving course of orange cones. As part of the October traffic safety spotlight on distracted driving, we would drive while texting, eating and applying lip chap.

RCMP Cst. Jean-luc Leblanc didn’t have high expectations for Regina’s reporters.

“In my nine-year career — going on 10 — people who are distracted driving typically do get into a collision. Your focus on the road is not there and I expect many pylons to get knocked over,” Leblanc said.

He sees all sorts of behaviour behind the wheel: Eating, putting on makeup, reading the newspaper and watching videos on a mobile device. Once, Leblanc saw a semitruck driver eating soup out of a bowl with a spoon.

Unlike cellphone use, Leblanc said motorists pulled over for eating are more likely to argue it’s OK.

“They don’t believe that it’s an offence,” Leblanc said, adding that he’ll correct them and reiterate that focus needs to be on the road.

It’s easy to imagine a scenario where a pickle falls out of your burger as you’re driving and before you’re able to pick it off your shirt, something terrible happens.

In 2017, distracted driving was a factor in 26 fatalities, 953 injuries and 6,400 collisions, according to SGI spokesman Tyler Mcmurchy.

Despite the overwhelming statistics and spending an hour watching my rivals drag pylons around the course, I was confident.

With Mcmurchy and trusty L-P photographer Troy Fleece on board — with a Mountie riding shotgun — we took off along the narrow, winding obstacle course. We hadn’t travelled far when Mcmurchy told me my lips looked dry, so I dug into a pocket for the supplied lip chap. Trying to navigate turns while taking the cap off the tube was tough. Just as I fumbled my way through that, I was told to take a selfie and send it to somebody (I picked Fleece). Even for a pale guy like me, it was a bad picture. And while I was knocking over pylons, I still didn’t send the selfie before coming to an abrupt, and late, final stop. While I caused Fleece to cuss, I was more concerned about the imaginary pedestrian crossing.

I’d call it a mess, but that’s what came next as I was handed a big A&W burger, a bag of onion rings and a root beer with the straw still in its paper wrapping. Time to do the course while eating. The tricky part was trying to avoid eating the burger’s wrapper as I knocked over pylons. Even going slowly, my focus was not on avoiding collisions.

On the third trip, without distractions, I cut 10 seconds off my best time and injured fewer pylons. And I didn’t blow the stop sign.

Afterward, Mcmurchy told me he felt safe in the back of the truck, but was worried about the other reporters and videographers standing near the course.

“When you were not faced with those distractions, your skill level increased, your confidence level increased and you were generally aware of everything around you. You took out way fewer pylons,” he said.

Yes, we cheered and jeered each other, laughing as pylons were wedged into the undercarriage and wheel wells, but I was acutely aware how lucky we were to see this recklessness in a controlled environment. In the real world, if you drive distracted, you’re not going to hit a pylon.

In my nine-year career — going on 10 — people who are distracted driving typically do get into a collision.