In Response
Dear Editor: After reading Sigurd Rutter’s letter to the editor Wednesday night, I gave him a call to discuss the issues he brought up. Mr. Rutter and I had a polite conversation. Still, it appears that we have different opinions about the risk associated with driving while simultaneously talking on a phone. However, one area we did agree on wholeheartedly was that the best strategy for pedestrians and cyclists is to have lights and reflective gear so they can clearly be seen.
On that issue, our town has made significant progress. This fall, Sitka Community Hospital and the Police and Fire Commission did a pre-project survey of cyclists and pedestrians who were traveling on our roads in dark conditions. Only 8 percent were visible from approximately 150 feet away. After the Be Bright at Night campaign, the post-project survey showed that 34 percent of local walkers and cyclists could be seen. The goal was to get to 16 percent, so doubling that number was a great result and one that happened because multiple businesses, organizations and people supported the project. Thank you to everyone who made this injury prevention program a smashing success.
Every day most of our residents use our public roads. We have had crashes on these roads and doing everything we can to keep motorists, cyclists and pedestrians safe makes sense. According to the National Safety Council, “distractions now join alcohol and speeding as leading factors in fatal and serious injury crashes”, so the next phase of the safe streets project is to cut the number of local distracted drivers in half, from 21 percent to 10 percent by March of 2016. Your help is needed to help us reach this potentially lifesaving goal.
Since the distracted driving project started I’ve been told multiple ‘close call’ stories where a local distracted driver nearly hit a cyclist or pedestrian. I got this one today, “I was almost squashed by a big SUV with a driver on their phone. I was in the cross walk at the stop light on Lincoln Street, crossing with the light on for walking and the driver sitting up high in the vehicle was talking on the phone did not see me. What a blood rush.” Last month, a friend shared his story of about his car’s head collision with a very distracted driver in Sitka. Distracted driving can negatively impacts everyone the roads; pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.
The story that made the biggest impact on me was from Fort Collins Colorado, a town I lived in for five years and a place that is considered to be pretty safe. On Nov. 25, 2008, 9-year-old Erica Forney was riding her bike just steps from her home. A neighbor, who was driving an SUV at 25 miles per hour, looked down at her cell phone as she finished a call and never saw the child in her path. Erica was struck and thrown 15 feet, landing on her neck. She died two days later on Thanksgiving Day.
You can see Erica’s mother telling her family’s painful story by going to distraction.gov. It’s one of many testimonials that are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “faces of distracted driving” project. I don’t want to ever see a Sitka mom telling a similar story on that site. I am 100 percent convinced that problems and injuries can be prevented by driving phone-free and I really appreciate all the motorist who are playing in safe.
Doug Osborne,
Sitka Community Hospital,
Director of Health Promotion
