Top official, victim’s mom take distracted driving personally
The results derived from statistical analysis don’t always hit home.
That mathematical pursuit lacks the human factor, which can often identify a causal effect far easier than crunching numbers.
Take, for example, motorists who continue flouting the state’s distracted- driving law.
After years of dealing with a practically unenforceable ban on texting while driving, Gov. Charlie Baker in late 2019 signed a law prohibiting the use of all devices behind the wheel outside of hands-free mode.
Due to the pandemic, police in 2020 only issued 29,600 citations for violations of the new distracted- driving law. The number of citations increased in subsequent years to more than 44,000 in 2021, 51,000 in 2022 and nearly 54,000 in 2023.
The introduction of this law came with a grace period, but those friendly warnings apparently haven’t persuaded motorists to keep their eyes exclusively on the road.
On paper, that’s a disturbing trend. But in the reality of a daily commute, the disastrous potential of that selfish practice becomes magnified.
Just ask the state’s top transportation official. She doesn’t need data to know that Massachusetts motorists regularly engage in distracting behavior while driving.
She witnesses it firsthand every day on her drive to work.
“If you do a commute on any major roadway — I take Route 2 — you’re seeing this every single day,” Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-nutt told Department of Transportation board members Wednesday.
“You’re seeing the issues as they leave the lanes. It is really, I would say, an epidemic, and we are continuing to work with the Registrar and public safety to figure out how to continue to address this.”
The secretary urged meeting attendees and viewers to tell their friends and families: “Please, please, please put your phone down.”
As reported by the State House News Service, Tibbits-nutt said phones aren’t the only issue — at least not on her drive to and from Boston.
“I see people shaving, putting on makeup. There is a person that I drive by every day that eats cereal,” she said. “I want to get their license plates so badly, but I’m not sure I should do that legally.”
While her observations sound more like that TV commercial depicting people behind the wheel doing just about everything but paying attention to the road, the transportation secretary’s testimony speaks to the frustration with drivers’ unwillingness to abide by this handsfree statute.
It seems that it will take a tragedy for some people to realize that reckless driving can exact a heavy price.
It was such a tragedy that prompted a Worcester mother to join with other stakeholders in the hopes of preventing what happened to her daughter.
In 2018, Alyson Lowell’s 20-year- old daughter Gabriella “Gabby” Lowell was killed by a distracted driver who admitted to texting just before the crash.
An emotional Lowell recounted to the worcester Telegram how she felt after receiving the news about her daughter.
“Gabriella was my only child and her life was taken by someone who was driving while distracted,” Lowell said. “He was texting and driving and had no regard for anyone else. But that text was not important. No text is important enough to send while driving.”
Since her daughter’s senseless death, Lowell has made raising awareness about the tragic consequences of distracted driving her mission.
Lowell, along with the Worcester County District Attorney’s office, the Worcester Police Department, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and AAA, has revived the “Eyes Up, Phones Down” initiative in hopes of preventing similar tragedies.
Originally launched in February 2020 in coordination with the state’s hands-free law, the public-safety campaign took a pandemic-caused pause.
But to promote its return, Worcester police won’t issue tickets for distracted driving during the first week of April. Instead of citations, officers will give distracted drivers a warning and a pamphlet fromthe District Attorney’s office about the dangers of distracted driving.
“This is a great example of working together in a prevention effort that’s going to bring the message to the public that when they’re behind the wheel of the car, we shouldn’t be on their phones,” District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said at a press conferencemonday at Worcester police headquarters. “We understand this is going to be a hard addiction to break.”
Early also encouraged drivers to use the “do not disturb” option on their smartphones while driving. That feature won’t show any notifications to the driver while in the car. Registrar ofmotor Vehicles Colleen Ogilvie had another piece of advice: Enter directions into GPS before starting to drive.
As the Worcester district attorney said — and the state transportation chief observed — distracted driving has been a hard addiction to break.
But with efforts like this Worcester-based initiative — especially if it’s emulated in other Massachusetts communities — Transportation Secretary Tibbits-nutt’s commute may no longer drive her to distraction.