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Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Aggressive Driving and Road Rage
Friday, May 25, 2012
Tragic Irony: Teen Dies While Texting The Dangers Of Texting And Driving Parents make plea to outlaw texting and driving in Idaho
Taylor Sauer, a college student driving home on a lonely road, was texting with a friend via Facebook when her car crashed into a tanker truck at 80 miles per hour, killing her instantly. The tragic irony of the situation was revealed in her phone records shortly after: At the time of the accident, she had been texting about the dangers of texting and driving.
Her last message, sent moments before the crash on Jan. 14, said, "I can't discuss this now. Driving and facebooking is not safe! Haha."
According to the phone records, Sauer, 18, was posting on Facebook about every 90 seconds.
"I think she was probably (texting) to stay awake, she was probably tired," Taylor's father, Clay Sauer, told Ann Curry on The TODAY Show. "But that's not a reason to do it, and the kids think they're invincible. To them, (texting) is not distracting, they're so proficient at texting, that they don't feel it's distracted driving."
Taylor's parents have since become activists in their home state of Idaho, trying to get the government to pass laws against texting while driving.
Because of texting-while-driving deaths like this one, the federal government is moving to limit in-vehicle communications technology that turns cars and trucks into virtual rolling smart-phones.
Last month, U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Ray LaHood announced a new set of proposed distracted driving guidelines for automakers that would limit the use of in-car tech solutions that are "not directly relevant to safely operating the vehicle, or cause undue distraction by engaging the driver's eyes or hands for more than a very limited duration while driving."
Specifically, DOT is recommending automakers withhold technology packages that require both hands to operate or that could take a driver's eyes from the road for more than two seconds. Further, DOT wants technologies that require detailed input from the driver to be disabled while the car is out of park. That would include text messaging and internet browsing along with such tasks as address entry into navigation systems and manual phone dialing.
Future guidelines may include recommendations to manufacturers of aftermarket devices like smart-phones, portable GPS units and tablet computers. It's important to note that these guidelines are recommendations, not mandates.
The controversy that will play out in the coming months and years is obvious: Drivers are so attached to mobile devices that if automakers don't keep innovating ways to stay connected hands-free, people will inevitably be drawn to using their mobile devices in ways that, it can be argued, are more dangerous.
To read more on incidents of texting tragedies, try reading: Death By Texting, about a Michigan man convicted under a new state law, and More Death By Texting stories.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Insurance Myth #4: “YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY IS LOYAL TO YOU.”
Insurance Myth #4: “YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY IS LOYAL TO YOU.”
May 15th, 2012
We’ve all heard the jingle: “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” For over 11,000 homeowners policyholders in five counties along the Texas coast, nothing could be further from the truth. The state’s largest carrier has made the decision to pull up stakes and abandon these customers, many of them long-time and loyal, without even giving a rationale for their abrupt actions.
State Farm’s reckless actions are a man-made catastrophe, sending shock waves through the families and businesses along the coast, who will likely see their insurance costs rise as a result of State Farm’s actions. This disruption to the market will place unexpected pressure on other carriers and will ultimately relegate many coastal policyholders to the Texas FAIR Plan, a state-run provider of last resort that offers bare bones coverage at high prices.
To take their disloyalty to an even greater degree, the company is selling out many of its own insurance agents, who will see their customer bases scattered to the wind due to State Farm’s arbitrary and capricious corporate edicts. These small businessmen and businesswomen have spent years prospecting for clients and building relationships with policyholders; however, more than 11,000 of these policyholders are being forced to take their business elsewhere. Because policyholders receive discounts for having multiple lines of insurance with one carrier – for example, coupling a homeowners and an auto policy together – these customers will be walking out the door.
Because our laws and lending practices require us to buy insurance, it is important that regulators protect the public by ensuring policies are adequate, affordable, and available. Sound public policy demands that the insurance industry not be able to redline or cherry-pick parts of our state. Unfortunately, the Insurance Commissioner – who has shown little willingness to stand up to insurance giants like State Farm in the past – has been unable or unwilling to intervene on behalf of State Farm’s customers in this case.
The Attorney General, however, recently announced that he is launching an investigation into State Farm’s withdrawal. Instead of complying with the AG’s Civil Investigative Demands, State Farm filed a lawsuit against the state. It is unclear what this investigation will reveal, but it is important that the AG see this investigation through to the end. State Farm shouldn’t be allowed to tuck tail and run without any explanation. The public deserves to know just what State Farm is up to and how the company’s decisions will impact the cost and availability of insurance.
State Farm’s actions in this case highlight the fact that insurance companies don’t reciprocate the loyalty they expect from their customers. Right now, 11,000 State Farm customers in five Texas counties are learning that firsthand. Could your community be on the insurance industry’s chopping block next?
All of this leads Texas families and businesses to ask: With “neighbors” like these, who needs enemies?
Written by Texas Watch.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Parents urged to talk, make contract with their teen drivers
Denise Gallagher, a 46-year-old child care provider in Philadelphia, is paying a terrible price for not knowing more about the dangers of teen driving. She lost her 18-year-old daughter, Lacey, in a one-car crash a few hours after Lacey's prom in 2007.
Lacey, who wasn't driving, was in a car with six other teens that crashed on the Pennsylvania Turnpike around 2 a.m., ejecting five of them from the vehicle. All six were injured, but Lacey was the only one killed. Gallagher says the crash was caused by drowsiness or distraction, or both.
"There were a lot of things we should have talked about," Gallagher says. "Six kids are a big distraction to a newly licensed teenager. I thought drinking and driving was the highest teenage driving danger. It's not. This is something I have to live with every day of my life. I think about what I could have done differently."
For young drivers, May marks the beginning of the season of high peril. It's prom and graduation time, when many teenaged drivers ask for and receive expanded driving privileges. And it's the cusp of summer vacation, when the stakes are extremely high for young drivers.
That's why the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day has been dubbed by auto club AAA and Volvo as "The 100 Deadliest Days" for teen drivers.
Seven of the 10 deadliest days of the year for teens fall between those holidays, according to AAA. July and August are the deadliest months for 16- and 17-year-old drivers, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
This year, the deadly season for young drivers rolls around at a time when there is growing research by the AAA Foundation and others that the young drivers who engage less frequently in risky driving behavior are those who spend the most time talking about driving with their parents. The research also shows that more needs to be done to encourage those talks on safety: Vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death for young Americans.
"The research and our experience tells us that the earlier we can get parents engaged in this dialogue and the longer we can keep them engaged, the more likely their teens will be safer drivers," says Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "But we live in an age where time seems to be at a premium. I'm sure a lot of parents find it difficult to allocate the amount of time to talk with their son or daughter that we would consider ideal."
He and other experts say there is no better time than this month for parents and teen drivers to talk about driving safely.
On an average day in the USA, more than 11 teens die in crashes. In 2010, the four deadliest months for teen crash deaths, in order, were August, July, May and June, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurance trade group.
So this month lends urgency to that discussion — call it The Conversation — between parents and their young drivers. "Parents' involvement and influence in the teen driving experience can literally mean the difference between life and death for their child," says Susan Duchak, who leads The Allstate Foundation's teen safe driving program.
So what, exactly, is The Conversation that parents should have with their young drivers? What should they say? And when and where should it occur?
It's not so much a single conversation as a series of conversations, experts say, and it should begin sooner than many think. Dennis Durbin, a Philadelphia specialist in the prevention of teen driver crashes, says he started talking about driving with his son, Jack, when Jack was 13.
"We started talking about driving when he started sitting in the front seat," says Durbin, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and co-scientific director of the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "That's really a good opportunity to start the conversation about safe driving. They immediately gain a much better awareness about driving.
"I sort of narrate some of what I'm seeing so they begin to see what I'm seeing," Durbin says. "I narrate the driving situation — I think that guy is about ready to change lanes even though he hasn't signaled, things like that."
But before parents can have a meaningful discussion about driving safety, they should educate themselves about the realities of teen driving, experts say. For example, many parents think drunken driving is the main threat to teen drivers, Duchak says; driver error, speeding and distractions are bigger problems.
Lack of parental involvement can be painfully expensive, and the pain of loss lasts a long time.
Gallagher says she wishes that she and Lacey, who was not wearing a seat belt the night she was killed, had talked more about her daughter's post-prom plans. "When you put a group of teens together, they make different decisions," she says. "Normally, she always, always wore her seat belt."
Her daughter's death led to the passage last October of Lacey's Law in Pennsylvania, which limits the number of passengers that teen drivers can have and increases the number of required hours of behind-the-wheel driving experience before obtaining a license. It also makes failure to wear a seat belt a primary offense for young drivers, meaning police can stop them solely for that.
Gallagher hopes the law will spare other parents. But it doesn't bring Lacey back.
"So many of these accidents could have been prevented just by following some simple rules, talking to your children and giving them enough experience behind the wheel before they're out on the road on their own."
'That conversation is huge'
Rob Kudej, 50, of Norwich, Conn., says he had a conversation about driving with his son, Patrick, 16, the day Patrick got his learner's permit. They went over the rules, over what was allowed and expected and what wasn't.
"That conversation is huge," Kudej says.
Patrick, who got his license in January, remembers it well. "We were all together in either the kitchen or the living room. It wasn't just a casual, walk-by talk," he says. "It was a structured conversation. It made me realize the importance of safe driving. We think we know everything, but we don't."
Kudej says many of their rules followed the state's new graduated driving license (GDL) law mandating phased-in driving privileges: no passengers, an 11 p.m. curfew, for instance.
Experts such as Chris Mullen, director of technology research at insurer State Farm, say that parents can use their state's GDL law as the "bad guy" when they discuss driving safety. "They can say, 'It is against the law to drive around with your buddy in the car,' " she says. "That can keep them from being the heavy."
Faith Mock, 55, a teacher in Rushville, Ind., had the conversation with her daughter, Taylor, now 19, several years ago. "We really sat down and talked about the fact that driving was a privilege, not a right," Mock says. "And that there are a lot of responsibilities associated with driving. We … made a verbal contract."
Written parent-teen driving contracts, available from many insurance companies and elsewhere, are an excellent starting point for that initial conversation, experts say.
"The act of creating the contract will prompt a dialogue," says Henry Edinger, chief customer officer at the Travelers insurance company.
Parents' role doesn't end
Experts say it's critical that parents regularly revisit the safe-driving conversation with their teen, especially once the teen starts driving independently. Many parents assume that once their child completes the provisional licensing period — when they have to be accompanied by an adult — the parental role ends.
Not so. "There's nothing magical that happens to the teen once they get their license and can drive independently in a vehicle," Durbin says. That initial period of driving alone is when they're at their "highest lifetime risk."
Once the teen is driving independently, parents should continue the conversation. "It should be, at a minimum, monthly," Edinger says. "There's a slow degradation in the thought process if you don't revisit it."
Riding with the teen periodically — to assess how they're doing and make sure they aren't backsliding — is also a chance to have the conversation again, Edinger says.
However, it's important that the conversation itself doesn't become a distraction while the teen is driving, says Susan Baker, an epidemiologist specializing in injury prevention at Johns Hopkins University and a traffic safety researcher.
Setting a good example
Perhaps most important, experts say, is that parents actually model the behavior they're trying to instill.
Several studies, including ones by AAA and Allstate foundations, have shown that many parents take a "do as I say, not as I do" approach with their teen drivers. They acknowledge that behavior such as talking on cellphones, fiddling with the radio or even breaking the law is dangerous; but large percentages admit to doing these things while their children are in the car.
In an April AT&T survey of 1,200 teens ages 15-19, 77% said adults tell kids not to text or e-mail while driving, yet 41% reported seeing a parent text while driving.
The good news: Sixty-two percent of teens in the survey said that getting reminders from their parents not to text and drive would be effective in stopping them from doing it.
Surveys, such as one this year by Harris Interactive for insurer State Farm, consistently show many teen drivers use cellphones or text while driving. A recent study by the California Office of Traffic Safety showed cellphone use among 16- to 25-year-olds doubled from 9% to 18% since last year.
"The teens today that are doing this are the ones who watch their parents do it," says Jennifer Smith, an Oak Park, Ill., teen-driving-safety advocate and parent who puts on distracted-driving seminars for teens and others.
Smith says she talks regularly with her daughter, Emani, 16. "I still tell her, 'Don't use your phone while you drive,' " she says. "I know that they get more confident as they learn to drive. I told her I don't want her to start acting overconfident."
Ongoing conversations, along with strong parental involvement, might be the nation's best path toward a future where automobile crashes are not the primary killer of the USA's young, Kissinger says.
"The conversation is not one and done," he says. "It is a continuous dialogue over years, really. Certainly over many, many months."
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Man went on drinking binge at Hooters in DFW before killing girl
Nine minutes after a drunken Marcial Jose Ortega left a Hooters bar in North Richland Hills in 2008, he rear-ended a station wagon at 77 mph. Four-year-old Kaitlyn Sanchez died, her head crushed.
Ortega, a 36-year-old mechanic, had three previous convictions for drunken driving -- all after binges at different area Hooters bars.
Why did Ortega choose Hooters?
His brother Nathan Ortega explained in a handwritten affidavit:
"Jose liked to drink at Hooters because they would serve him even after he was drunk or they would take away his keys and call a cab. ... Jose was usually too drunk to drive when he left Hooters. ... Hooters knew about his DWIs because I was there when he was telling the Hooters people about getting another DWI leaving there."
Marcial Ortega was charged with murder, rare in a drunken-driving case, and began a 30-year sentence after pleading guilty.
In March, the Sanchez family finalized a $1.1 million settlement with the insurance company of Texas Wings, which in 2008 owned all the franchised Hooters bars in Texas, said the family's attorney, Brian Butcher of the Noteboom law firm.
It's illegal for a bar to sell alcohol to an intoxicated person, and bartenders and other staffers are legally obligated to look for signs of intoxication.
But the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission took no action against the North Richland Hills restaurant. The agency's investigation of the March 14, 2008, incident could not prove that the restaurant had over-served Ortega, a spokeswoman said.
The case file said, "Unless no new information is obtained, no action is recommended."
Commission spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said, "Because he was at more than one bar and because the waitress refused to talk, it was hard to prove that [the over-serving] was directly attributable to the alcohol he was served at Hooters."
It's difficult to confirm a violation, Beck said, if there is no witness saying that Ortega was falling down, tripping or showing other signs of intoxication.
Butcher, the Sanchez family attorney, believes that surveillance recordings made by Hooters on March 14 could have provided such evidence, but they were never presented, despite requests by both his law firm and the Hurst police who investigated the accident.
Special customer
In a prison deposition, Ortega paints a picture of a social life centered on Hooters bars, particularly in North Richland Hills, where he was treated as a special customer. He'd arrange a midweek day off from his mechanic's job to coincide with shifts that favorite servers worked. They allowed him to hug them; sometimes he got them drunk by slipping them mixed drinks in plastic foam cups or buying them beer, he testified.
The Hooters in Grapevine once served Ortega 16 beers, he said in his deposition. He recalled drinking so much after visiting one Hooters that he'd fall asleep in his truck afterward, spend the night sprawled in his mother's garden -- awakened only by red ant bites, or be so senseless that he'd soil himself in bed.
Arlington had the most liberal serving policy, he said. "It's a place where there was no rules. There was no boundaries there. I got free beer. You know... it was endless there."
Hooters servers in Arlington would take Ortega's keys away if he got drunk, but that never happened at the North Richland Hills bar, he said.
Known as a generous tipper, Ortega was drawn to the Hooters in North Richland Hills on March 14 by text messages from a server, Stephanie Darnell, telling him it was her last week before going on maternity leave, according to a police report.
Darnell was quoted as saying that she served Ortega six Bud Lights but that he did not appear drunk.
"He was not stumbling or falling over," she was quoted in a police report as saying. "If he would have, I would have called a cab." Ortega started drinking before he got to Hooters, according to court records.
He had more than one shot of Crown Royal whiskey and Dr Pepper in the morning, then bought and consumed a 12-pack of Bud Light, although it might have been an 18-pack, then had more shots at Studer's Sports Bar before heading over to Hooters, he said in his deposition.
Surveillance video would have shown him so inebriated that he would hold onto tables on the way to the restroom, Ortega said. Two hours after he killed Kaitlyn Sanchez, tests showed, he still had triple the legal blood-alcohol level.
Hooters risk manager John Chlebak said in a deposition that a wide-angle, "eye in the sky" surveillance camera was positioned between the restroom and the bar area. Another camera near the entrance would have recorded people entering and leaving, Chlebak said. The equipment would have stored the continuous recording about 20 days, he said.
John Gessner, the Hooters former chief legal counsel who handled the 2008 incident, said in a deposition in September for the Sanchez lawsuit that after Hurst police viewed the tape and found no sign of Ortega on it, the video was recorded over.
Gessner reiterated his deposition statement. "My recollection is that the police officers were in the location within 24 hours of the accident and viewed the footage," he said in a telephone interview last week. Gessner also said that he himself had watched it. Ortega wasn't on the recording, he said.
However, an incident report by officer Chad Woodside, who investigated the girl's death, said, "During the entire investigation, I, Detective Woodside, was never provided with a video from Hooters on the night of March 14, 2008."
In another report, Woodside quoted Hooters manager Mark Burckel as telling him that either there was no videotape or it was unavailable.
No action was taken against Hooters over the discrepancy.
Both Burckel and Gessner now work for a rival chain, Dallas-based Twin Peaks, which owns the Ojos Locos sports bars and other concepts.
Restaurant group sold
At the time of Kaitlyn Sanchez's death, Texas Wings was the largest Hooters chain in the country.
Within weeks of the accident, Texas Wings owners Kelly and Judy Hall of Dallas negotiated to sell out to a North Carolina-based investment group, Chanticleer Holdings.
In July 2008, an announcement was made that Chanticleer had agreed to buy the chain for $108 million in cash and stock. But financing collapsed with the economic downturn that year and the deal fell through, Chanticleer CEO Mike Pruitt said in a telephone interview. The breakdown had nothing to do with the Sanchez case, Pruitt said.
Later, Texas Wings merged with Atlanta-based HOA Restaurant Group, the Hooters brand owner and franchise management company. Chanticleer acquired the entire HOA company including the Texas bars in January 2011, reportedly for $200 million.
A Hooters corporate spokeswoman stressed that the accident occurred before the change of ownership.
She also described the case as an anomaly.
"This is an unfortunate and rare incidence, despite all of the best and most proactive training measures," said Alexis Aleshire, the spokeswoman. "HOA Restaurant Group has an extensive and ongoing safe alcohol service training program and considers itself a leader on this subject."
The Sanchez family, which spoke through their attorney, said their lawsuit was never about money. It was aimed at preventing other families from living through a "nightmare like they have experienced," Butcher said.
Ortega, who has taken a cooking course in prison and now works in a unit kitchen, said the hardest part of serving time was not being permitted to hug his 4-year-old daughter -- Kaitlyn's age when she was killed -- during visits.
In his deposition, he takes responsibility for his role in the tragedy. But Hooters bears some blame too, he said.
"They knew I had a problem" with drinking, Ortega said but added that he couldn't help himself. "I just didn't love it, I was stuck in Hooterville."
Friday, May 4, 2012
First Texas Distracted Driving Summit Draws National Participation
Summit participants plan to continue efforts to reduce distracted driving statewide
AUSTIN, TX--April 26, 2012: National Distracted Driving Awareness month may be drawing to a close, but safety experts from around the state are making sure the conversation continues.
Today, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) joins other traffic safety partners--including law enforcement and federal, state and local officials--to participate in the first Texas Distracted Driving Summit in San Antonio. USAA is presenting the event, in association with TxDOT and Shriners Hospitals for Children®.
"Today's Texas Distracted Driving Summit is a reminder of how far we have come in just the last three years in combatting America's distracted driving epidemic--and how far we still have to go," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who delivered the keynote address at the event. "I am grateful to all of the advocates who are working tirelessly here in Texas to remind drivers to keep their eyes on the road, their hands on the wheel and their focus on driving."
More than 200 participants--including physicians and businesses--are attending the event and have pledged to be a part of the effort to curb distracted driving. In fact, a key participant, the Insurance Council of Texas, plans to facilitate a meeting of summit participants to review lessons learned as well as discuss future plans to reduce distracted driving in Texas.
"Today's dialogue is an important step for the state of Texas in fighting distracted driving," said Carol T. Rawson, TxDOT's Traffic Operations division director. "Each of us has a role in changing this behavior, and we look forward to working with our private sector partners to increase awareness around the state."
At today's summit, experts and advocates against distracted driving are sharing experiences, insights and knowledge to keep the consequences of distracted driving in the national conversation. Participants have much to discuss.
Victims' families are sharing personal stories, academics are discussing the science and research behind the behavior; and physicians are weighing in on the traumatic injuries distracted driving crashes cause. Also, summit attendees are discussing broader aspects of distracted driving, such as how corporations can help address the issue of distracted driving through their own policies. Further, one presentation takes a unique perspective on distracted driving, highlighting the fact that some populations, such as some veterans post-deployment, may be dealing with unique distractions on our roadways.
"The tremendous interest in today's event is proof the people of Texas are committed to putting an end to the state's distracted driving epidemic," said Jennifer Smith, who has advocated against distracted driving since her mother was killed by someone talking on his cell phone while driving in 2008. "Too many families have lost loved ones in 100 percent preventable crashes, and we are going to take the momentum from today's summit to chart a path forward to keep the roadways of Texas safe from further distracted driving crashes."
In 2011, more than 81,000 Texas crashes involved some type of distraction or driver inattention, and 361 of these crashes were fatal. Nearly one in four crashes in Texasinvolves driver distraction. TxDOT is continuing its Talk. Text. Crash. campaign launched last year to increase awareness of distracted driving. Throughout April, TxDOT is running radio PSAs statewide to remind motorists to refrain from engaging in non-driving activities while on the road, especially cell phone use and texting. The summit is a new aspect of this year's Talk. Text. Crash. campaign that provides an opportunity for many different organizations to share information about distracted driving.
"Distracted driving is a completely preventable yet widespread problem,"saidMaj. Gen.Kevin Bergner, retired, and president, USAA Property and Casualty Group. "It's incumbent on all of us with a stake in highway safety to be indignant about this behavior so it becomes as socially unacceptable as drunk driving."
"Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of spinal cord injuries," said Dr. Lawrence Vogel, MD, Shriners Hospitals for Children® Chicago. "As a world-leader in pediatric spinal cord injury rehabilitation and management, we are committed to doing our part to prevent injuries and fatalities on the road by promoting safe driving practices through education and awareness efforts. We see a large number of patients from Texas, so we are thrilled to participate in the statewide Distracted Driving Summit."
Additional information on distracted driving may be found at www.distraction.gov. For more information on TxDOT's Talk. Text. Crash. campaign, visit Texas DOT.
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