Partial to Home: Near misses

On a recent weekday morning, driving north on Seventh Street, I sped up as I approached Main Street. The usual interminably red stoplight at that intersection was green.

For some reason, I looked left to be sure the coast was clear.

Glad that I did.

A man driving an older Suburban (or something of similar bulk), heading east in front of Trustmark Bank, was barreling towards the intersection with no intention of stopping.

I hit the brake as he zoomed in front of me. Evidently he was entranced by the cell phone held about a foot from his face. Had I not seen him, chances are I would be writing this column from a hospital bed, if at all.

I sat there, partially into the intersection, dazed.

My dear wife, who is famous within our family for her response to transgressions such as this — litterers especially — might have given chase.

I was just happy to be alive and proceeded through the intersection.

Like getting run over in the Kroger parking lot — another recent near miss — it would not have been the end I would have chosen. Not that we have a say in the matter. Whether a cell phone was a factor in the Kroger incident, I have no idea.

Apparently my experiences with near misses are not unique. Everyone I’ve spoken with seems to have a similar story. Cell phone use while driving accounts for 1.6 million auto accidents annually.

I am far from pure when it comes to talking and texting while driving. It’s a bad habit, one I want to break.

Statistics compiled by drivesafeonline.com suggest the magnitude of the problem:

• Texting while driving has the same effect on your reaction time as if you had consumed four beers in a single hour.

• In the five seconds it takes to read a text, a car going 55 mph travels the length of a football field.

• About 19 percent of U.S. drivers admit surfing the web while driving.

• About 50 percent of teens believe they have a smartphone addiction. Seventy-two percent of young drivers feel a pressing need to respond to texts immediately.

• Seventy-seven percent of teens say their parents tell them not to text and drive, then turn around and do it themselves.

Our smartphones exert a strange power over us.

A friend told of recently going out to eat at a Mexican restaurant in West Point. His party was ushered into a back room where a birthday celebration for the patriarch of a large family was underway.

“Every one of them, with the exception of the older man whose birthday they were celebrating, was looking at their cell phones,” he said.

We all know people who will take a call or read a text no matter where they are, what they are doing or who they are with.

Below are some strategies to counter the smartphone’s temptations while driving:

• Put the thing out of reach. Silence your phone — or switch it to airplane mode — and put it out of sight. Really, do you need to respond to that phone call or text right this minute?

• Distract yourself safely. Try audiobooks, interesting radio stations, music. None of those is as attention-absorbing as texting, which takes both your attention and your eyes off the road.

• Use one of the apps that detect when your car is traveling more than 25 mph, will stop you from sending texts and even send an automatic response saying you’re driving and can’t talk right now.

Sounds simple, right? It really is. With a little forethought and a good helping of resolve.

Birney Imes (birney@cdispatch.com) is the former publisher of The Dispatch.

Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.