Put that phone down

I’d be lying if I said I have never texted while driving. As a matter of fact, a few years ago, I took a little bit of sick pleasure scaring guests from abroad by shooting off text messages with one hand and steering the car with the other... while giving them running commentary on how safe Manila really is.

Lately, I have resolved to kick the habit. With my phone’s QWERTY keypad, and my preference for spelling out messages properly, doing so while driving is just impossible. I end up holding off sending or reading messages until the car is stopped, such as while waiting for a green light at an intersection. I realize some people think they’re able to text or email just fine with QWERTY phones while driving, but I’ll get to that in a while.

We’re all aware that texting while driving is a very dangerous habit, but it may be even riskier than driving under the influence of alcohol.

One in-house study was done by Car & Driver Magazine, which measured reaction times of two drivers while texting compared to driving with the (US) legal driving limit of blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 %. A baseline reaction time was also established, in which both drivers were neither texting nor inebriated. Driver “A” was a 22-year old, while Driver “B” was a 37-year old.

At 35mph (56.33kph), with a baseline of 0.45 seconds, it took Driver A 0.52 seconds to step on the brake pedal at the prompt of a red light on the dashboard (mimicking the red brake lights of a car stopping in front of him). Driver B took 1.36 seconds from a baseline of 0.57 seconds. By comparison, it took Driver A 0.46 seconds to hit the brake pedal while intoxicated, and Driver B 0.64 seconds.

The tests were also conducted at 70mph (112.65kph). From a baseline of 0.39 seconds, Driver A needed 0.48 seconds while texting, and Driver B 1.24 seconds from a baseline of 0.56 seconds. Intoxicated, Driver A needed 0.50 seconds, and Driver B 0.60 seconds.

The importance of those hundredths of seconds differences can be measured in extra distance traveled before coming to a complete stop. At 35mph, Driver A needed 4 extra feet to stop while texting compared to 1 foot while impaired. Driver B needed 41 feet while texting, and 7 feet while impaired. At 70 mph, Driver A needed 9 extra feet while texting compared to 11 while impaired. Driver B took 70 extra feet while texting, and just 4 feet while impaired.

The full details of the article are too lengthy for this article, so here’s the web page for those who want to know more: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q2/texting_while_driving_how_dangerous_is_it_-feature. By the way, the study also measured reaction times for drivers who were reading text messages, as opposed to composing them which I just elaborated on.

Another, more exhaustive study was conducted by the Virginia Tech Transporation Institute, one of the world’s biggest vehicle safety research organizations. Over a span of 18 months involving 100 truckers who had video cameras installed in their cabs as they drove all over the US, the study found that the drivers typically spent almost five seconds looking at their mobile phones instead of paying attention to the road.

At a typical highway speed of 65 mph (104.6kph), they would have traveled 476.65 feet before they would have reacted to a situation up ahead. Their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.

Another 18-month study conducted by the University of Utah on college students using driving simulators found that they were eight times more likely to crash when texting. Both studies are now undergoing peer review before formal publication.

What’s the point of all this? Smart alecks will say that it’s better to drive drunk than text, but both acts are simply reprehensible when you now consider how quickly things can go wrong in a heartbeat. A car is, after all, a large, solid object packing a lot of kinetic energy. No driver wants to hit anything or anyone with his car, so why do so many take the risk anyway?

Think of what could possibly happen in a heartbeat while your 1,400 kilogram car is moving along, a fairly massive and lethal weapon: a kid could cross the road, a huge pothole could be in the way, the car in front of you might stop.

Associated Press recently released a story about a tow truck driver who ended up in a swimming pool after hitting a car that had stopped in front of him. The idiot was texting with one hand while engaging in a phone conversation on another phone. But he was a moronic exception, I hope.

The rest of us are dangerous enough with just one phone in the driver’s seat.

But why should anyone try to drive or text more responsibly even when the facts tell you that it is really not a good (or responsible) idea to do both at the same time? Especially in a culture that loves to do the opposite of what we’re told to do, the pasaway mentality, that “Masarap ang bawal” syndrome.

Rather than implore you to put that phone down and concentrate on the road, here’s a short list of why we should keep on texting (or tweeting, or emailing, or anything else you can do with a phone that involves typing) while driving:

1. It can’t happen to you. Accidents are for the other idiot. Your multitasking skills will enable you to text, Tweet, and email while in the driver’s seat. If jeepney drivers can dole out change to multiple passengers, make a “pasa load”, and steer a WW2 relic all at the same time, you can do a lot better.

2. Those studies were made by Americans. Everybody knows Pinoys are the BEST drivers in the world.

3. You know your route. You know every rut, pothole and pink fence along the way, so it’s okay to steer on autopilot while your hands, eyes, and mind are on the complicated task of composing diplomatic SMS messages to a client.

4. Cats have nine lives, and dogs have no business running around without a leash anyway. The viscera in your fender liners can be easily removed at the carwash.

5. If you weren’t planning on crashing, you wouldn’t have gotten a car with dual airbags.

6. What the heck is insurance for if you’re never going to use it?

7. So long as you drive a straight line, you are free from liability should a motorbike rider crash into you.

8. It’s not a traffic violation if they can’t see you texting behind your super dark tint.

9. Lives are cheap. Should, God forbid, you run over a child, a maid, an old lady who was crossing the road while you were updating your Facebook, you can avoid jail by simply paying off the victim’s family. Conscience is overrated, anyway.

10. Like I said, it can’t happen to you.

We got one of the best, most diverse and opinionated bunch of reactions we’ve had in long time after last week’s The Registration Blues. Here are some of them…

The best tip I can give is what I’ve been doing the past years. I register the car either in Makati or Mandaluyong (near JRU). I come in a little after 4pm. Once I went at 4:30. There’s a quick emission test beside the LTO. The good thing was, since it’s almost closing (5pm), almost all employees don’t want to go overtime, so they quickly did the necessary paper work and....before 5pm.... finished! I’ve learned my lesson going in the morning... lunch break always happens. – smoothe

I think it just wasn’t your lucky day. I registered my car in Pasig three times already and it never took me more than three hours. For the TPL, I just give my payment to Peter Parker and he can choose whatever company he likes. Siya na bahala pumili and he usually just asks somebody to handle it. Fair enough because he gives me back my change up to the last peso. I even left my spare key one time and our ever friendly neighborhood hero returned it to me when I got back from the emission test. – amir

Ever considered being a member of the AAP? It’s the smoothest ride in the land for car registration. The only thing you do is have the emission test done before going to the AAP office together with your car documents. They do the legwork and they even call you once the papers are ready for you to pick up. It’s worth the try if you can’t stand to wait in line. – bunnysevilla

Hello Mr. Magsajo: This is in regards to your article in The Philippine STAR dated July 29 about the LTO. After reading your article I decided to see how long the registration process would take. Yesterday I drove my wife’s van to the LTO in Lipa City, Batangas. We arrived at 1:05pm and left at 2:11pm. The people were very friendly, helpful and courteous. Kudos to the management, they are doing a great job. It is too bad that all branches of the government are not this efficient. – William H. Asbury

We have a new service provider for your text comments. To register, text philstar <space> name, gender, birthdate, address and send to 2256 (all networks). Once registered, you can post your text comments to Backseat Driver by texting philstar <space> motoring <space> your message, and send to 2256 (all networks). Of course, you may still log on to www.philstar.com and blog your comments.