" Driver distraction a factor in many crashes
By CAREN HALBFINGER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
Figures
Accidents by county in which driver inattention or distraction was cited as playing a role
Westchester, 2004
-880 accidents (1 fatal, 853 injury and 26 property damage) 13.7% of all 6,425 accidents
- Third most-cited factor after following too closely and speeding
Putnam, 2004 - 85 accidents (1 fatal, 79 injury and 5 property damage) 9.8% of all 871 accidents - Fourth most-cited factor after speeding, following too closely and failure to yield
Rockland, 2004 - 409 accidents (4 fatal, 403 injury, 2 property damage) 15.6% of all 2,621 accidents
- Third most-cited factor after following too closely and failure to yield
Source: NYS Department of Motor Vehicles
(Original publication: December 24, 2006)
Maybe you stayed up too late decorating holiday cookies, assembling toys or wrapping gifts. You're exhausted, but your to-do list is still a mile long.
You get in your car and your eyes linger a little too long on an eye-catching holiday display, you make or take a phone call, dig out a new CD, or glance at the back seat while you're driving to the mall or the supermarket.
For an instant, your eyes and your mind wander, putting you, your passengers, other motorists and pedestrians at risk.
A Yonkers woman who reportedly had been putting on makeup while she drove on the Henry Hudson Parkway on Thursday morning was killed after she lost control of her car and crashed into a tree in the Bronx.
And in the past two weeks alone in Westchester and Putnam, four people were killed and two were injured in three head-on collisions.
Sadly, there's more: A pedestrian was killed in a shopping center parking lot and a police officer was injured in two separate accidents.
In each of these accidents, the weather was good and police do not suspect drugs, alcohol, mechanical failure, road conditions or speeding were factors.
"There has been an uptick in the number of accidents that appear to be the result of driver inattention,'' said State Police Capt. Michael Kopy, whose investigators are assigned to several of these accidents. "It's unfortunate, but these seem to have been much more serious. You can't allow yourself to become distracted, for five or 15 or 30 seconds. You have to remain vigilant.''
Leading causes
Driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes, according to a landmark report released earlier this year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the accident or incident.
The main causes are multitasking and drowsiness. The most common driver distraction is a cell phone, NHTSA found, and it doesn't make much difference whether you're dialing, talking or listening. Reaching for a moving object increased the risk of a crash or near-crash by nine times; looking at something, reading, applying makeup or dialing a phone all tripled the risk, while talking or listening to a hand-held device increased the risk by 1.3 times.
"People are on their cell phones, they're playing with the radio buttons or yelling at their kids in the back seat and that contributes to a lot of accidents,'' said Eastchester Detective Sgt. Matt Kiernan.
The fatal Henry Hudson crash of Lusaed Perez, 34, of Yonkers on Thursday is just one of the most recent examples. Thomas Carrero, a Westchester County police officer who was one of the first to arrive at the scene, said Perez had mascara in her hand and all over the air bag. According to published reports, witnesses told police they saw her applying makeup as she drove.
Local crashes
The latest batch of accidents in Westchester and Putnam began Dec. 11, when Elizabeth Carlen's 2004 Honda Accord slowly drifted across the double-yellow line on Route 100 in Somers about 3 p.m. and plowed into a 1999 Audi A4. Carlen, 84, was pronounced dead at the scene. Lina Borschov, 27, who was six months' pregnant, died after the head-on collision and her newborn daughter died of complications due to her premature birth, three hours after she was delivered by Caesarean section.
"You're not going to have a lot of people tell you, 'Oh, yeah, I was leaning over picking up a CD off the floor and that's when I killed somebody,' '' said Investigator Michael Davis of State Police at Somers, who is looking into the Route 100 crash as well as another one on Route 22. "We know it happens a lot. We get that answer when there's a lot of minor fender-benders. We don't get that answer when there's a fatal accident.''
Davis said the preliminary investigation of the Carlen-Borshchov crash found the cause was improper lane usage. However, he said, "Driver inattention could very well be a factor here. There were witnesses who said she was slowly drifting into the oncoming lane. Could there have been a medical issue? It's possible. We know she didn't have a heart attack. There are some things we can never know.''
On Dec. 13, at 8:02 p.m., Susan A. Dipace, 54, of Rye was run over and killed in the Lord & Taylor parking lot by Alessandra Reis, 27, of Mount Vernon, who was driving a Chevrolet Avalanche. Witnesses said she was not speeding and tests showed she wasn't impaired by alcohol.
"The victim made her last purchase at Lord & Taylor at 8 p.m., and it happened at 8:02,'' said Eastchester Police Sgt. George Barletta, who was at the scene of the accident. "The woman just said that she didn't see her. She made the loop and stopped to motion other ladies to cross and the next thing, she said, 'I heard a thump.' I think driver inattention could have played a role, but the fact that negates it is the fact that she stopped to let two other ladies cross. A tragic accident is what it is. It's a big truck, a dark night and a small lady wearing black.''
Reis could not be reached for comment.
The next day, Brenda Burdick, 46, of Brewster was driving south on Route 22 in Patterson about 6:15 p.m. when her Honda Civic crossed the center line near Route 164. Her car hit a Dodge Neon driven by Melissa Mann, 31, of Pawling. Luckily, no one was killed. Burdick suffered internal injuries and Mann had a broken left foot and a gash on her leg, police said. Both were admitted to Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Conn.
State Police Sgt. Ted Daley of the Brewster barracks said police suspect that a prescription medication was a factor in the accident and have subpoenaed the hospital's toxicology reports. But he said distracted driving probably also played a role.
"Brenda Burdick crossed the center line and she stated she was upset and crying while she was driving,'' Daley said. "That's definitely a distraction. When you're concentrating on a personal matter, obviously you're not going to be concentrating on traffic around you. Obviously that could definitely be seen as a contributing factor.''
Burdick could not be reached for comment.
On Dec. 17, Robert A. Smith, 59, of Cortlandt was killed when Karen Pecora, 47, also of Cortlandt, crossed the center line in her 2002 Ford Escape at 1:49 p.m. She drove into Smith's motorcycle on Bear Mountain Bridge Road near the Monteverde at Oldstone Manor Restaurant.
State Police Investigator Kelly Pavlak of the Cortlandt barracks said it was too early to determine the cause of the accident.
"Why she crossed the double-yellow she doesn't even know,'' Pavlak said. "There wasn't any cell phone. There weren't any drugs and no alcohol. We still have to have the vehicle inspected. It does have the little black box, and the accident reconstructionists said speed was not an issue. We can't prove distracted driving. She's not admitting to anything.''
Reached through Pavlak, Pecora declined to comment.
At dusk that same day, former White Plains school board President Dorothy Schere, 66, hit a White Plains police officer who was directing traffic on Ridgeway outside the Woman's Club of White Plains. Officer Carlos Garcia, a 10-year veteran, had a concussion and numbness in one leg and remained hospitalized Thursday, but was expected to be released before Christmas, said Daniel Jackson, deputy commissioner of public safety.
"She didn't see the officer standing in the road directing traffic until he was bouncing off the hood of her car,'' Jackson said. "She stopped right away, and of course, she feels terrible about it. That's not a place where you expect to see an officer. It's an accident. It's an unfortunate one, but it's an accident.''
Reached at home, Schere said, "I don't think it was a matter of not paying attention so much as he not having any reflective material on and there were crowds of people there. It was just at dusk. I never saw him.''
Distraction factors
Daley said any driver can fall victim to a variety of distractions.
"We all take driving for granted as second nature and it's really not,'' Daley said. "We have the cell phone law, but eating in the car isn't illegal, nor is applying lipstick or shaving or reading maps. I was driving on I-84 recently and I saw someone reading a novel while driving. I got off at the next exit because I didn't want to be anywhere near that one."
"We can all learn from this," he continued. "It's something we all fall victim to. You just have to be aware of what your distractions are. If you have your full attention on the road, you may be able to avoid something that's coming your way, whether it's another car, a pedestrian, or something falling off a truck. The odds are definitely against you today. Traffic is a lot denser. We need to be more diligent and vigilant.''
Reach Caren Halbfinger at
chalbfin@lohud.com or 914-694-5004. "
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