At least 10 dead across B. C. after spate of traffic accidents

Driver inattention must be addressed, professor contends

Government and private industry should work together to solve the problem of driver inattention, a University of B. C. academic says on the heels of a deadly Thanksgiving long weekend on B. C. highways.

Ron Rensink, an associate professor in psychology and computer science, said Monday that drivers’ ability to focus on what’s happening around them could be related to obvious conditions such as darkness, rain or snow, but also less obvious sources of inattention.

“A lot of accidents happen when something is in clear sight,” he said in an interview. “You need visibility and attention. If your attention is not on something, you generally do not consciously see it.”

While the police have been trying to crack down on the problem of distracted motorists — those who text while driving — research increasingly shows that the use of handsfree devices is no panacea for the problem.

Rensink said a number of studies have shown motorists talking on these devices can also become distracted and at risk of causing an accident.

“It turns out they don’t help as much as people think,” he said. “The key thing is not the manipulation of the hands — it’s the attention.”

A 2013 University of Utah study gave distraction ratings, from least to most distracting, of 1.21 for listening to the radio, 1.75 for listening to a book on tape, 2.27 for using a handsfree cellphone, 2.33 for talking with a passenger, 2.45 for using a hand- held cellphone and 3.06 for using a speechto- text system that recognized commands perfectly to play and compose emails and texts.

“If you have hands- free, that’s not enough,” said Rensink, who has worked for six years with Nissan as a research scientist. “Don’t get too involved in your conversations.”

He said that someone using a hands- free device can be distracted to varying degrees, depending on the nature of the conversation and the complexity of the driving required at any given time.

The first step is for the public to become aware of the how much they are missing on the road when they are distracted — in extreme cases, even running into a train at a highway crossing, Rensink said.

He also touted the idea of a “public- private partnership” to address ways to measure the extent to which someone is paying attention while driving.

“We can look at signals from, say, the steering wheel, accelerator, brake to work out whether the driver is awake and on top of things. This is the way we have to go if we want to fix this problem,” he said.

Traffic accidents around the province this Thanksgiving holiday weekend left at least 10 people dead. Two people died in a five- vehicle crash Monday afternoon, Delta police announced on Twitter. The crash on Highway 10 closed the road both ways between Highway 91 and 120 Street.

In Coquitlam, a 75- year- old man died after being struck by a van Friday at 7: 12 p. m. at the intersection of Mariner Way and Dewdney Trunk Road. The driver of the vehicle remained at the scene and has been assisting with the investigation.

A 52- year- old man died in Maple Ridge Sunday at about 8 p. m. after being hit by a car while pushing a shopping cart across Lougheed Highway.

And in Surrey, one person died and five others were injured after a two- vehicle collision at Highway 10 and 132nd Street on Friday, Global News reported.

In the Williams Lake region, two separate single- vehicle accidents left three people dead and one seriously injured.

On Friday at 7: 35 p. m., a southbound vehicle left the road and entered a ditch, killing the 58- year- old male driver, about 20 kilometres north of 150 Mile House. On Saturday at 12: 55 a. m., a vehicle southbound on South Lakeside Drive also left the road, rolled down a slight embankment and onto CN rail tracks. Two men died at the scene and a 21- year- old woman was taken to Cariboo Memorial Hospital with serious injuries, then transported to Vancouver.

On Cortes Island, a car crashed into the ocean Saturday night, killing the 87- year- old male driver — despite rescue efforts by a Cormorant helicopter crew from CFB Comox.

The Daily Townsman newspaper reported that a 44- year- old man died after his vehicle hit livestock Saturday just before 6 a. m., about 20 kilometres east of Cranbrook. The driver lost control and was struck by a westbound commercial vehicle.

ICBC reports an average of three people are killed in 1,800 crashes in B. C. over Thanksgiving weekend, based on statistics collected from 2009 to 2013. Another 520 people on average are injured over the same long weekend, including 370 people in the Lower Mainland.