A cautionary example of the deadly connection between cellphones and driving

Heather Lerch, 19, was texting a friend as she drove home on Littlerock Road. It was a drive the Tumwater High School grad had made countless times before.

She suddenly lost control of her Chevrolet Cobalt at a bend in the road. The car fishtailed and crashed into a guardrail at 60 mph.

After noticing she had not returned from work, Heather’s parents went out to find their daughter. They came upon the crash scene, which was about 2 miles from home.

A state trooper told them plainly, “she’s dead.”

The crash with the guardrail had caved in the driver’s side door more than 2 feet and pushed Heather into the passenger seat.

Just before the fatal crash, she had been sending and receiving text messages including this one: “Hey you and I need to hang sometime ; -)”

The date was Feb. 23, 2010.

“It’s been seven years, but it still hits me every day,” said her mother, Wendy McQuaid, who now lives in Montesano. “It’s the worst thing in the world to lose your child. It changes your whole life.”

In the years since her daughter’s death, McQuaid has shared her experience with parents and high school students. The hope is that her story can serve as a warning that saves lives.

But during her commute to Olympia, for example, she is frustrated by the constant sight of drivers who divide their attention between the road and whatever is on their smartphones. McQuaid also is skeptical of the law’s effectiveness in curbing such behavior.

“I wish people would just understand,” she said. “These people have to stop and think: Is this worth my life?”

Washington has established a Strategic Highway Safety Plan called Target Zero, which is primarily aimed at reducing the number of traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2030.

According to the plan, distraction is a factor in 30 percent of fatal crashes in Washington. The crash risk is more than three times greater when talking on a phone and 23 times greater when “entering information into a phone.”

In fact, using a smartphone while driving is considered not just a visual distraction, but a cognitive distraction that’s different from eating a burrito or applying makeup while driving, for example. The program cites research by AAA that shows mental distraction from using a phone can last 27 seconds after the driver puts down the phone and gets back to focusing on the road.

Angie Ward, program manager for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, said distracted driving-related crashes involving phones are difficult to measure and are likely underreported.

“There’s a lot of shame behind cellphone use,” said Ward, noting that people are less likely to admit that information in a crash report. “We all know we shouldn’t be doing it, but many of us still choose to do it.”

Although there’s a lack of data right now, Ward said the commission is “convinced that distraction is a big part of our congestion problem.”

The Washington Traffic Safety Commission recently announced results from the first statewide effort to measure distracted driving, which is a factor in at least 30 percent of fatal crashes. According to the commission’s latest data, the number of fatal crashes caused by distracted driving has steadily increased over the years with 111 in 2012; 116 in 2013; 123 in 2014; and 157 in 2015.

The recent distracted driving survey observed 22,322 vehicles at intersections across 23 counties in May 2016. Among the findings:

▪ An average of 9.2 percent of all drivers in Washington are driving while distracted. That breaks down to about 6.9 percent of drivers being distracted by their phones and about 2.3 percent distracted by another behavior such as eating, tuning the radio or tending to children and pets. That also means nearly 91 percent of drivers are not distracted.

▪ Kitsap County had the highest rate of distracted drivers at 20.5 percent, while Cowlitz County had the lowest distraction rate at 3.6 percent.

▪ Thurston County came in slightly under state average with a distraction rate of about 9 percent. Pierce County’s distraction rate was reported at 18.4 percent, while King County’s rate ended up slightly above state average at 9.7 percent.

▪ Drivers at stoplights showed a higher rate of distraction because drivers must wait for a cue from the signal, as opposed to taking immediate action at an intersection controlled by a stop sign or yield sign where there’s a shorter wait time before moving through.

Two bills related to distracted driving are still alive in the Legislature. House Bill 1371 and Senate Bill 5289 would make it illegal for people to hold electronic devices such as phones and tablets while driving on a public roadway. Under the proposed law, violators would still face the $136 penalty for the first offense, but the amount would double for subsequent offenses.

The state’s original “hands-free” law was passed in 2007, and in 2010, another law was passed to allow officers to pull over a driver solely for texting or using a hand-held device.

This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "A cautionary example of the deadly connection between cellphones and driving."