Course proves that texting, phone calls make for distracted driving

SALT LAKE CITY — Three seconds is all it takes, observed Luis Marin, from the time he begins asking drivers questions over a cell phone to the time they begin hitting cones on the obstacle course.

"I have a question for you," said Marin, the lead instructor for Allstate, as 18-year-old Natalee Falk of Farmington navigated a course at the Utah State Fairpark. "What's seven times two?"

"Fourteen," Falk responded.

"Plus seven?" he asked.

And before Falk correctly answered "21," the brake lights of her sports-utility vehicle began lighting up. Soon, she hit cones, which represented other vehicles or even people, and drove the wrong way through one part of the course.

Falk and her father, Mike, were among nine parent-and-teen groups participating in the Family Driving Challenge that Allstate held Thursday morning. Chicago-based Allstate Corp. is traveling to about 65 cities across the United States to educate people about the dangers of distracted driving.

In 2008, 6,000 people died in crashes involving a distracted driver, according to National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration estimates. In addition to the deaths, distracted driving is blamed for costly property damage and personal injuries, and the insurance industry has pushed states to prohibit cell phone use for drivers.

In Utah, it's a class C misdemeanor to drive while texting. Distracted driving in general is illegal, but there is no law in Utah specifically punishing talking on the cell phone.

Thursday at the Fairpark, teens and their parents drove the course three times each — first, without distractions, then once while chatting on the phone to Marin and once while texting Marin.

"I am a fabulous texture," Falk wrote to Marin, though she actually meant to type "texter."

The grammatical errors Marin received via text would embarrass an English teacher. When he asked one driver where he lives, he responded: "Disiyrh Salt Laky."

When Marin asked another driver what they thought of the driving course, she replied "CRA," then a few seconds later wrote "crazy."

Utah Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Rapich ran over several cones, while his 17-year-old son, Jeremy, playfully ribbed him from the passenger's seat: "You just drove over a cone. Why did you do that?"

With texting and chatting on the phone, Rapich said, "you'll get away with it 99 times out of 100. It's that one time when the hazard presents itself and you're texting or putting on makeup."

Natalee Falk admits to both texting — she has become an expert at steering her SUV with her kneecaps, freeing her thumbs to type — and chatting on the cell phone while driving. After driving on the Allstate course, she has decided to stop.

"I think she'll be a great example to her mother and brother," Mike Falk said.

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