As holidays approach, cellphones and speeding remain major roadway risks in South Dakota

Despite new laws and public-information campaigns, distracted driving and cell phone use behind the wheel continue to make roadways in South Dakota and across the country more dangerous.

New survey data from the American Automobile Association show a significant reduction in some unsafe behaviors in recent years — including impaired driving, red-light running and driving while fatigued — while rates of speeding and distracted driving remain “stubbornly high.”

Though national data show a slight decline in speeding and use of hand-held phones behind the wheel over the past decade, 45% of U.S. drivers reported to AAA they drove 15 or more mph over the speed limit in 2020, while 37% of drivers used a hand-held cell phone and 34% read a text message or email while driving last year.

According to another recent national survey by Volkswagen, half of South Dakotans reported that they used social media on their phones while driving in the past year, and nearly one in five admitted to taking a “selfie” photo while behind the wheel.

Concerns over unsafe behaviors behind the wheel take on greater urgency during the holidays, when more motorists are on the road, starting with Thanksgiving this month and through Christmas and New Year’s.

In South Dakota in fiscal year 2020, distracted driving, which includes the use of cell phones, was listed as a contributing factor in 840 of the total 17,599 motor-vehicle accidents, or 4.8% of all crashes.

Distracted driving was listed as a contributing cause of accidents at a higher rate than several other factors, including speeding, disregarding a traffic signal, improper passing, turning or backing, over-correcting, and swerving to avoid an object, according to state crash data.

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AAA forecasts that 53.4 million people will travel during the 2021 holiday, up 13% over 2020 and almost back to 2019 totals.

Col. Rick Miller, superintendent of the South Dakota Highway Patrol, said some drivers continue to use their cell phones or allow themselves to become distracted behind the wheel even though they are well aware how unsafe — and illegal — the behaviors are.

“I wish I had the magical answer of why people are still doing this, but I don’t,” he said. “It takes your reaction time and makes it almost nothing."

Using phone while driving can be 'difficult to enforce'

When a driver is distracted for just three seconds at 65 mph, their vehicle will travel 285 feet; at 80 mph, it jumps to 351 feet, more than the length of a football playing field. A 5-second distraction at 80 mph leads to 585 feet traveled, almost the length of two football fields.

Texting while driving in South Dakota has been illegal for a decade, but was not a reason an officer could pull a driver over until July 2020. Texting became a primary offense at the same time the state made it a misdemeanor to use a cell phone in a vehicle for any reason other than in emergencies or to make a phone call. Several South Dakota cities banned texting while driving over the past decade as well.

Yet despite the laws and ordinances, Miller said distracted driving and speeding remain significant hazards on South Dakota roadways. Miller noted that troopers have clocked numerous vehicles traveling over 100 mph on South Dakota roads this year and continue to see erratic driving due to distraction.

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With heavy holiday traffic expected over the upcoming holidays, drivers must be especially diligent in following highway safety rules, Miller said.

South Dakota saw a high-profile distracted driving death in September 2020 when Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed pedestrian Joe Boever near Highmore. Ravnsborg later pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors of illegal lane change and using a cell phone while driving. He was fined but served no jail time; Ravnsborg is now the subject of an impeachment investigation by the South Dakota House of Representatives.

Miller and other law enforcement experts acknowledge that enforcing laws against texting or other distracted driving is difficult because drivers may hide their behaviors and it is hard for officers to prove someone was breaking the law.

In 2019, South Dakota highway patrol troopers issued 51 citations and 56 warnings for texting while driving, and in 2020, they wrote only 26 tickets and issued 17 warnings, state data show. The fine is $178.50.

“At times it is difficult to enforce, but when we see it, we enforce it,” Miller said.

Yet state statistics related to cell-phone use in car accidents likely undercount the actual number of times a driver was distracted by a phone or something else.

Distracted driving was a contributing factor in 78 fatal accidents in South Dakota over the past decade, with cell-phone use directly connected to 13 of those deaths. In fiscal 2020, seven of the 132 fatal crashes in South Dakota, about 4.8% of the total, were tied to distracted driving.

'It's pretty common to see cars swerving around'

The city of Sioux Falls has an ordinance banning the composition, reading or sending of text messages while driving or in traffic, according to Sam Clemens, public information officer for the Sioux Falls Police Department.

Clemens said some people have tried to continue using their phones but in a way that makes it harder for officers to see any unlawful behavior.

The city has issued 457 tickets to drivers violating the local texting ban and another 24 tickets for violation of the state cell-phone law since 2013, according to police department data.

Clemens said that despite the difficulty in enforcement of the local ordinance, almost everyone who drives a vehicle understands that using a phone behind the wheel is distracting and dangerous.

“It’s pretty common to see cars swerving around,” he said.

Derek Mann is a crash-reconstruction expert for the Rapid City Police Department who also spent several years as a state highway patrol trooper and accident expert.

Mann said he understands the temptation to use a cell phone while driving, especially in some areas of South Dakota where travel times are long and highways are flat and straight.

According to an AAA survey in South Dakota in 2019, drivers aged 19 to 24 are six times as likely as all drivers to read a text message or email and twice as likely as all drivers to compose or send a test message or email behind the wheel.

"They’re so interconnected with their cell phones that it becomes part of them,” he said.

Mann said drivers should make wise decisions about cell-phone use before they cause an accident that changes their life or the lives of others forever.

“The worst part of this job, and I’ve done it for years, is for an officer to knock on the door and tell a loved one that someone has died in a crash. In their lives and in our lives, I will always be that guy who told them their son or daughter or husband or wife died in a crash,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Major roadway risks are cellphones, speeding ahead of holidays in SD