Eyes on the road

He’s headed down the back roads on the way to job number two, cramming in a sandwich because he knows he won’t get another chance to eat for a few hours. The phone rings. Although he doesn’t answer it (so dangerous!) he does glance down to see who called. It can’t be helped! The small device beckons almost subconsciously. That’s when half the sandwich falls to the ground … and so he picks it up ...reaching down but his eyes are still on the road … mostly.

Ever drive with someone like that? Ever been that driver? It’s no big revelation that a lot of us are “multitasking” on the road. Doing other things. Maybe enjoying a snack or glancing repeatedly at the GPS in anticipation for our upcoming turn. We’re chatting heatedly with passengers, singing to music and yes, stealing a peak at that text that just came in. Police officers and on-duty deputies are all-too familiar with the fall-out of fatal crashes that all started when someone wasn’t paying attention. So how can these units pitch in to help prevent accidents before they happen?

Some are hitting drivers where it hurts and upping fines, others are working with media to fabricate attention grabbing scenarios, and still more law enforcement agencies are tapping into technology but placing a spin on the application—using WiFi connections and telescopic lens to make a point. Can one, or all of these methods help to save drivers from themselves?

Distracted driving stats

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDS)’s 2015 stats evidence the three main types of distracted driving as being visual (taking your eyes off the road), manual (taking your hands off the wheel) and cognitive (taking your mind off the driving task). And this problem is on the rise: 421,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver in 2012, a 9 percent increase from the 387,000 people injured in 2011.

Although cell phones are a contributing factor (In December 2012, more than 171 billion text messages were sent or received in the US.1) they are just one factor of many. According to the CDC: 69 percent of U.S. drivers ages 18-64 admitted to using their cells while driving within 30 days before they were surveyed. In Europe, this percentage ranged from 21 percent in the United Kingdom to 59 percent in Portugal. (The media’s fixation on phones).

 “Distracted driving is a big issue,” says Constable Clinton Stibbe with Toronto Police Services. “There are many aggravating factors that cause collisions. We are becoming oblivious and desensitized to our driving environment, and as a result the individuals that are crossing roads or making those turns in the car or taking those chances unfortunately are taking lives.”

Road-testing innovative, unexpected initiatives

In 2009 TPS implemented a targeted distracted driving enforcement program. They started with legislation. Fines went up (from about $100 to $300 - $1000) as did demerit points (from zero to three). Similar to the seatbelt initiatives of the Seventies, Stibbe says this alone has resulted in huge compliance.

The second piece of the puzzle was pairing new legislation with major media coverage that ideally sent an unforgettable message. Stibbe’s agency has developed numerous campaigns in the past several years to “show” rather than “tell” what happens when drivers are not zeroed in. One that worked particularly well was dubbed “That text or call could end it all”; TPS partnered with a local funeral home to rent out a hearse and equipped it with police decals, strobe lights, and a casket in the back.

Stibbe says, “That vehicle was on patrol, stopping individuals as they were using their cell phones. What’s interesting is when someone sees a police car they put the phone down; they hide it. They know what they’re doing is wrong. The last thing they expect to see is a hearse roll up beside them and stop them.”

Media outlets in Vancouver and radio stations throughout the country picked up the story. As you could imagine, the hearse became quickly identifiable and grabbed attention.

Sometimes PR stunts like this can be a risky move. An agency must decide whether the pros outweigh the cons. “We had one person complain about it, saying his wife had died and the use of the hearse had offended him. But we have to put this in context. [The vehicle is] a symbol for the risk you’re taking when using the cell phone,” says Stibbe.

This is definitely not the only creativity cops have been known to employ to keep drivers on-task. Similar to graphic commercials by insurance companies and government services; these police-generated initiatives are meant to leave a lasting impression.

“There are different demographic in society that can accept or use a visually impactful thing. You need a campaign that’s going to touch everybody—visually or [audibly] … like seeing a hearse. You’ve drawn them into it. It’s controversial, but it gets people talking,” says Stibbe.

Enlisting the help of gadgets

Police in the Pacific Northwest are also focusing on innovative ways of dealing with the issue.

Steve Vittolo is a law enforcement consultant at U-TURN180, a company that works to reduce traffic crashes injury and death on Oregon’s roadways. He also spent 10 years as a deputy sheriff reserve at the Polk County (Wash.) Sheriff’s Office.  “Driving distraction is a huge discussion item, and while agencies can send DUI patrol out on overtime, the problem is they’re focusing on one problem. And they lack state-of-the-art technology. So agencies are creating more methods to achieve these goals, such as looking into vehicle.” One such program called “Operation Peekaboo” (around 2007) in Clackamas Co., Washington wanted to find commercial truck drivers not wearing seatbelts, but ended up being just as effective for detecting cell phone usage and texting while driving.

Clackamas Co. Sheriff’s Department worked with a company to get a telephoto lens with a specifically reduced glare so officers could see whether drivers were using a phone and not wearing seatbelt, etc. The telephoto lens shot photo from 600 to 800 feet and tracked violator with auto focus. It took a picture of the driver (as though seen with their eyes). The photo was then transmitted via WiFi to a motor unit down the road holding a handheld device; the patrol vehicle then initiated a stop.

All photographing was done on a public street through vehicle windows, which is how law enforcement officers already view infractions. Vittolo points out a camera merely provides photo evidence, not unlike an in-car dash cam. It was estimated only 65 percent of semi drivers on interstate were wearing belts.

“You have to think outside the box. Law enforcement officers are human beings, not robots. They can’t focus on 27 different infractions at one time. The future is at their fingertips. So naturally we need to use technology to help us find hotspots, and thread together causes for inattentive driving…whether internal or external,” says Vittolo.

At one point the same sheriff’s department would put an officer in plain clothes and position him or her as a panhandler, with a small camera hidden inside a sign. This program, unofficially dubbed, “Operation Panhandler” was implemented by Robbie Northif*  (talk about Northif*’s accident?) and mainly detected cell phone/texting while driving infractions.

Other agencies have taken a similar approach. Sometimes the “panhandling officer” uses a camera, sometimes not. But the goal is always the same—grab the driver’s attention, make him think, leave a (hopefully) lasting impression.

Stibbe says of their programs: “If we can leverage something like this the media does our work for us. They are the machine driving what everybody sees on a daily basis and how everyone interprets it. If they can show what we’re doing, we’ve made an impact.”

Traffic safety going forward (a targeted approach)

On Oregon roads, “everyone knows where to find the speeders” says U-TURN180’s Steve Vittolo, but what officers lacked was a good way to “collect” various driver errors that results in crashes, organize it, and use it electronically to prevent similar crashes from happening in the future. 

In addition to U-TURN, Vittolo also works with Trimble Public Safety to help public safety determine traffic problems and concerns ahead of time, rather than making decisions with year-old information in a constantly changing city. Trimble’s Omega Dashboard provides real-time, actionable intelligence for traffic and crime using analytics and eCitation. The idea is, responding officers may attribute a recent flush of crashes to factors such as tailgating, construction zones, distracted driving, etc. and take appropriate action.

For the last ten years Vittolo has been working on functions of the Omega Group Crime View. The program analyzes and provides real-data, including a statewide view of crashes, injury levels and hotspots. “This is a methodology for the future of highway safety. It’s not replacing anything already in place today, rather it’s an addition,” he says.

“What the majority of National Highway Traffic Safety [looks at] today relates to engineering—things like driverless cars, airbags, etc. No one’s created something like this to deal with driver errors. The work we’re doing in Oregon is done to show this is methodology of the future.”

Vittolo plans to promote the Omega Group Crime View at the International Traffic Records Forum in October. He is also a finalist for ‘Best Visualization Award’ and was invited to speak at IACP.

Work on the OGCV began by digitizing paper-based citations and crash reports using electronic traffic software. “Over time we put that data into a data warehouse and were able to provide intelligent information back to the agency,” says Vittolo. The public, for the most past, still does not understand jurisdictional disconnects. Vittolo says very few agencies have the same records sharing in Oregon under local control. When they brought the Omega Crime View to Oregon State Police, the agency was suddenly able to connect with courts. Trimble built a data warehouse and started disseminating data back to agencies.

Soon agencies were connected like never before.  

Vittolo says the biggest challenge in distracted driving is educating the nation on the future of traffic law enforcement, analyzing real time data and taking action on that data using state-of-the-art tools available today that make a real dent in the nation’s fatal and injury crashes.

In addition to that approach, pricy fines may keep drivers in line. And a hearse cruising down the road with will probably turn some heads, too.