Distracted Driving | iDSC036

Distracted Driving – Impacts ALL Ages - Focus on the Drive & Stay Alive Distracted driving is now a greater killer on the roads than DUI.  And the problem doesn’t reside exclusively with smartphone devices and teenagers – there’s far more to it than that.  Hear the details as Officer Simeon Yarbrough of the California Highway Patrol joins us for another life-saving informative podcast. For resources Officer Yarbrough discusses within the podcast go to: https://www.chp.ca.gov/ ***Transcript*** Recording date – February 15, 2018 Officer Yarbrough: Back in the day, DUI used to be the biggest killer of our drivers on the road, well, not any longer. It's distracted driving. The worst thing I've seen is I get there, and the person is deceased. Their phone is on the floorboard. You pick it up, and you can tell they were sending a message because it's still blinking on...like half of the message is already written out, and they never were able to finish the text. Sometimes it's something simple like "on my way," and they never get to finish the rest of the text message, and it's just the worst thing ever. It's sad. It's stuff that can be prevented. Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of these fine United States of America - Southern California. I'm Tom Smith and I am back at the California Highway Patrol South L.A. office here with Officer Simone Yarbrough. This is our second podcast together so thank you, Officer, for joining me again. Officer Yarbrough: Thanks for having me back, Tom. I appreciate it. Tom: And today's topic is distracted driving. Now when we think about distracted driving there's there's all kinds of thoughts that come to mind. First and foremost, you have, obviously, people messing with their cell phones when they're not supposed to be. And I know this is a state by state thing, but here in California, we are not to have our cell phones in our hands when we're driving around. So when we're stuck in traffic and when we see that the knucklehead ahead of us is the one holding up everything and the reason why that knucklehead is holding up everything is because he or she is messing with her cell phone and that's illegal.  That's rather mind numbing. It's like, okay, citizens arrest, can I do that? Officer Yarbrough: No you can't do that, Tom. Tom: Darnit! Darnit! Officer Yarbrough: Not for cell phone usage, for other things, yes. Tom: Okay. Officer Yarbrough: Cell phone usage, no. Tom: I have your cell phone number, though, so I'm going to be calling you directly and tipping...that will be my hot tip line. Officer Yarbrough: We appreciate that. But then you'll be on your cell phone. Tom: All right. So distracted driving. Thanks again for joining. What exactly is it in the eyes of the law, both the letter and the spirit? Officer Yarbrough: So it's almost anything when you think about it. Everybody thinks a cell phone or texting, but it can be more than that. So when you mess with your navigation system in your car, the kids in the car, are you looking in the back seat, anything that takes your mind and your eyes off the road is distracted driving. You can be drinking coffee, putting on makeup, shaving, eating food. People drive and read the newspaper at the same time. Tom: Drinking coffee can be considered distracted driving? Officer Yarbrough: Yes because, again, you have one hand off the wheel, putting the cup up to your mouth, so you're probably taking your eyes off the road. And if anything happens, you don't have that other hand free, so it is almost like having a cell phone in your hand because that hand is not free to help you make an evasive move if you need to grab the st...