Authorities say distracted driving crashes continue worsening with texting

Distracted Driving Awareness Month

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month – an ever increasing problem that law enforcement says grows with phone usage.

Cyndi Crocker founded Crocker Law Firm, and she’s helped injured clients for almost 30 years. 

“You may hurt somebody. You may kill somebody. That’s something that you’ll have to live with,” said Crocker. 

She says texting and driving behind a wheel can be just as deadly as drinking behind it. 

“We have a lot of distracted driving cases,” Crocker said. “We used to see horrible collisions and assume we were dealing with a drunk driver, but we see the exact same type of collisions, the same loss of life… over and over you see see it’s because their phone is in their hand and their eyes are off the road. Especially If you’re not just talking on it but you’re trying to text on it. You’re just a terrible driver. You’re driving just like a drunk driver.” 

Kentucky State Police Post 3 Trooper Daniel Priddy says he’s seen distracted driving crashes become more frequent over the years thanks in large to the allure of texting and driving. 

Priddy says even the best multitaskers shouldn’t be too confident, because one second is all it takes to go wrong.

“It’s easy for something to  happen right in front of you like a car stop. Maybe a pedestrian or bicyclist goes in front of your vehicle, and you want to be able to have the time to be able to react to what’s going on.”

KSP will participate in Operation C.A.R.E., Crash Reduction Awareness Effort, and the 6-State Trooper Project both in hopes of stopping distracted or drunk drivers before tragedy strikes. – especially in high traffic and high collision areas. 

Priddy says the best thing you can do is turn on Do Not Disturb when you get behind a wheel.

“It’s human nature when you hear that alert or you hear that tone go off to look down and see what’s happening on your phone,” Priddy advised. “If you have that on silent or have that on Do Not Disturb While Driving on, you won’t have those notifications, what will keep you maybe from looking down for that split-second of looking down for that it may take for something to happen in front of you.”