Tag Archives: Paul’s Law

Texts can wait

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By Savannah Strickland
Special to the Delta Digital News Service

Lisa Strickland

JONESBORO – The Arkansas Legislature passed Paul’s Law to harshly punish those who text and drive because they are putting other drivers and passengers in danger.

Even though a year has passed, Lisa Strickland still reflects on a near-fatal accident back in November 2016. The 57-year-old Jonesboro native and employee at Joe’s Tire and Auto survived a head-on collision due to a woman typing out a text message to a friend.

Strickland traveled across the Windover overpass on a Sunday afternoon. She said she remembers seeing a woman coming towards her, clearly distracted. The car drove over the center line and hit Strickland head-on, knocking off her SUV’s rear tire, flipping and spinning her vehicle, and leaving her hanging upside down by her seat belt for 8 minutes.

The wreckage of Strickland’s SUV. She keeps pictures on her cellphone as a testament to not text-and-drive and to wear a seat belt. Photo courtesy of the Strickland family

Strickland purchased her vehicle just nine days before the accident. When police arrived on the scene, officers told Strickland the wreck would have killed her immediately had her vehicle been smaller.

Strickland said before the accident occurred, she used to text while driving. But now she keeps her phone zipped inside of her purse in her back seat. She stays more aware of her surroundings, and makes sure those driving around her are paying attention to the road and not their phone.

Hannah Aldridge, a 21-year-old Arkansas State University senior, drives for Uber. Her job affected her views on texting while driving.

“Before I was an Uber driver, I would text and drive,” Aldridge said, although noting she wouldn’t do it while baby-sitting. “I am very grateful to be driving with Uber because it taught me that texting and driving is not safe, and that getting a text sent to one of my friends can wait until I have arrived safely at my destination.”

Hailey Wright, a 19-year-old freshman from Paragould, has not been a a victim of a texting-and-driving accident. But she has heard horror stories from family members and friends who knew people who had been injured as a result from another driver texting while driving.

“I think texting and driving is extremely ridiculous,” she said. “There is no text worth endangering and possibly killing yourself and other people. Choosing to text and drive is choosing to put yourself and others at risk.”

Retired Arkansas State Police Lt. Robert Speer saw many driving accidents caused by a driver texting while driving.

“Once I was called to the scene of an accident because I was the closest officer,” he recalled. “Upon arrival, I learned that the car had crashed because the passenger had received a funny picture through text and was showing it to the driver of the vehicle, which caused the car to veer off the road and run head-on into a telephone pole.

“Neither passenger sustained injuries, but it taught them a lesson on the distractions that cellphones can cause when inside of a vehicle.”

Distracted Driving Affects Everyone

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By Katie Woodall
Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO, Ark. – The National Safety Council observes April as Distracted Driving Awareness month in an effort to educate drivers and create awareness about the dangers of distracted driving.

Distracted driving can be any form of driving while engaging in another activity, but the most commonly thought of form is texting and driving. Currently, 46 states feature a texting and driving law with all but five having primary enforcement.

The Arkansas Legislature enacted Paul’s Law in 2009 after a Jonesboro man died in a texting-and-driving related accident. The friends and family of Paul Davidson pushed the legislation in an attempt to educate others about the dangers of texting and driving.

Matt Roberson played a key part in working on Paul’s Law and said it was created in an attempt to deter texting and driving more than anything.

“If there was ever anything positive about this situation, we felt creating a law that might save others and remembering Paul would be the best way to do it. While it was difficult and tragic at the time, we can look back on it all now and know that we did something that might help someone from experiencing the same tragedy,” Roberson said.

While the law hasn’t had the preferred deterring effect, Roberson said he believes people are more aware of the dangers now because of all the organizations dedicated to educating people about it.

“The more awareness there is, the more likely people will listen and stop. Unfortunately, it just takes time for people to learn and sometimes it takes learning the hard way,” Roberson said.

Paul Holmes, a public information specialist for the Jonesboro Police Department, said teaching motorists the laws and what qualifies as distracted driving could help with the texting and driving incidents in Jonesboro.

“Distracted driving can mean anything from looking for a song to listen to while going down the highway, to sitting at a red light and checking a message. It’s the driver’s responsibility to themselves as well as other motorists to be safe,” Holmes said.

Last year, in an effort to reduce the number of distracted-driving accidents in Jonesboro, JPD set up traffic stops at Red Wolf Boulevard and Caraway Road and actually walked through traffic during red lights, ticketing drivers who were on their phones.

“We did see a reduction in accidents fairly quickly after doing the traffic stop. It may be something we do again in the future,” Holmes said.

The Jonesboro Police Department documented 164 car crashes involving texting and driving specifically over the past three years.

Becca Studebaker has experience on both ends of a texting and driving accident. Her first accident happened when she was driving distracted in a construction zone.

“I looked down to my phone for one second and then all the sudden I was hitting signs,” Studebaker said.

While she was ticketed for distracted driving, Studebaker said she’s thankful only her car was hurt in the accident and she learned her lesson when it comes to texting and driving.

Yet just because Studebaker said she doesn’t text and drive anymore, that doesn’t make other drivers follow the law.

Last month, Studebaker was involved in another texting and driving accident, this time being rear-ended by another driver who was distracted. Studebaker said she suffered a concussion and whiplash, and her car was totaled in the accident.

Ultimately, Studebaker said she hopes the person that rear-ended her learned the same lesson about texting and driving that she did.

“You think it’s OK; you’re fine the majority of the time you think, but there’s that one time that you could end up hurting yourself or someone else,” Studebaker said.

(Editor’s Note: Photo of texting and driving by Intel Free Press [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons)