• Only travel in winter weather when necessary, leave enough time to safely reach your destination and plan your route to avoid snowy/icy areas and steep hills

• Before leaving home, check weather and road conditions by dialing 511 within Nevada (or 1-877-NV-ROADS outside of Nevada)

• Turn on headlights to see and be seen

• Share your travel itinerary so others know when to expect you

• Remove snow and ice from all vehicle windows, mirrors, lights, turn signals and license plates

• Buckle up

• Avoid quick starts, stops and fast turns. Accelerate, brake and steer smoothly and gradually

• Reduce speed. Speed limits are based on normal road and weather conditions, not winter road conditions

• Do not slam on brakes. Apply steady pressure on ABS-equipped vehicles and pump the brakes if necessary on non-ABS vehicles

• If your vehicle has snow tires, install and use them between October 1 and April 30

• Keep additional distance from other vehicles

• Turn off cruise control

• Watch carefully for snow removal equipment

• Do not pass without good distance and sight clearance

• Use extra caution on bridges, ramps, overpasses and shaded areas- they may freeze first

• Maintain a high fuel level

• If vehicle begins to skid, steer in direction of slide and slowly remove foot from accelerator

• Be aware of black ice

• Always carry tire chains, especially when traveling in mountain passes or typically snowy areas

• Remember – 4-wheel-drive vehicles cannot necessarily turn or stop any better than 2-wheel-drive vehicles

For more winter driving tips, visit the state Department of Transportation website.

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Fuhr said the outcome of a crash where police, firefighters and other emergency responders are hit by someone driving at freeway speeds is almost inevitable. “You will kill them,” said Fuhr, who stood Tuesday with almost a dozen troopers who have been hit while on patrol — some of them more than once.

“Sadly, we have a wall of officers that have proved that very point with their lives,” the colonel added. Ten of the 129 Utah officers killed in the line of duty died as a result of injuries suffered when their patrol vehicles were struck by inattentive motorists, according to the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial.

Fuhr said drivers should take the following steps when they encounter emergency vehicles on the side of the road:

• Slow down immediately when they see emergency vehicles ahead with their lights activated.
• Move over at least one lane, and if that is not possible, move over as far as possible.
• Look for hazards or other warning signs of danger ahead.
• Focus on driving and avoid distractions like talking on the phone or texting.

“These four things will help drivers increase their reaction times,” Fuhr said.

Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Terry Woodward was investigating a crash last month on I-215 near 5200 South when he “heard the sound that every trooper hates to hear.” “I heard tires sliding on the pavement,” Woodward said Tuesday. “It was kind of that ‘Oh, crap’ feeling.” Woodward, who was injured by another, said he saw a car sliding sideways toward his patrol car. He tried to jump out of the way, but the car hit the back of the patrol car, which was pushed sideways and struck Woodward.

He remembers calling for help on his radio and seeing emergency crews arrive at the scene. “Then things went fuzzy from there,” said Woodward, who suffered a broken left leg, left ankle and right foot and had to be hospitalized in intensive care for internal bleeding in his pelvis. The crash that injured Woodward remains under investigation by the Taylorsville and Unified police departments. It marked the fourth time in his UHP career that Woodward has been hit while on duty.

“I’ve jumped over many barriers many times,” said Woodward, who still cannot put weight on his broken left leg and ankle. “I just wasn’t able to get out of the way this time.”

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Texting and driving are two things that cannot be done at the same time, at least not psychologically.
Those are the findings of new research from the University of Utah that will be published this week. The research is the first peer-reviewed study that details the psychological effects of texting while driving.

“When we look at dual-tasking — doing two things at once — there is a limited amount of attention that we can dedicate to each of those tasks,” said Frank Drews, associate professor of psychology at the U. “With text messaging and driving, it’s not one or the other; it’s either, or.”
Our brains, he said, can’t maintain control of one while doing the other.

“During the time people are text messaging, they are driving blind,” Drews said, adding that when performing both those tasks, attention and efforts are switched between the two and not shared, as in other tasks.

The hazards of texting while driving continue to receive broad national and international attention as accident rates attributed to this practice increase. Utah law already bans texting while driving, and most people already know it isn’t safe, but new U. research actually quantifies the risk.

“People who text message while driving are six times more likely to get into a crash than people who are not text messaging while driving,” Drews said. Not only are they more likely to have or cause an accident, but texting while driving decreases response times to traffic signals and brake lights by about 20 to 30 percent, according to Drews’ study, which used 40 participants in simulated driving situations. Talking on the phone while driving slows reflexes by about 9 to 10 percent, much less than that of text messaging, which requires more attention to execute.

The study also found that drivers who text have difficulty maintaining lateral control of their vehicle, which causes them to swerve within and often out of their lane of travel, having two times as many lane crosses as usual, Drews said.

“It’s the first peer-reviewed research that has said why texting while driving is unsafe and how it is unsafe,” he said. “It leads to a degradation of driving ability.”

Drews has been researching the effects of dual-tasking for more than a decade and is specifically focused on how people sacrifice performance on one task to do another. In addition to texting and talking on the phone while driving, he has looked at the behavior of multi-tasking intensive-care nurses. Like some things in life, he said, traffic is not forgiving.

It is estimated that more than 6,000 people die every year as a consequence of multi-tasking while driving, and many more are injured by another. However, those figures cannot be proven because some circumstances are unknown and not all people who cause road deaths admit what they were doing before an accident occurs, Drews said.

Unfortunately, drivers have to look out for themselves and be aware of any distracted drivers around them.
“They are putting a significant burden on everyone else to keep themselves safe,” Drews said. Distracted drivers often increase their following distance from other cars, move more slowly than other traffic and move more within their lanes, among other signs…

“You want to get away from those drivers,” Drews said. Drivers who are text messaging, he said, aren’t prepared to react to unpredictable situations and therefore won’t in the case of a potential accident.
“People who are using a cell phones while driving have an impaired ability to self-monitor what they are doing,” he said. “Their ability to criticize their own performance is impaired.”

Drews’ research, performed with several other psychologists and researchers at the U., is available online and will be published in the upcoming issue of Human Factors, from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

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A traffic accident with damages was reported Sunday on southbound I-15 near mile marker 51.

A traffic accident with damages was reported Sunday on the 1200 South block of Dixie Drive.

A traffic accident with injuries was reported Saturday on northbound I-15 near mile marker 4.

A traffic accident with damages was reported Saturday at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Bluff Street.

A traffic accident with damages was reported Saturday on the 2700 East block of Red Cliffs Drive.

A traffic accident with injuries was reported Saturday at the intersection of South River Road and East Commerce Drive.

A traffic accident hit and run was reported Saturday at the 2400 East block of Red Cliffs Drive.

A traffic accident with injuries was reported Saturday on the 1100 East block of Riverside Drive.

A traffic accident with damages was reported Saturday at the intersection of West Sunset Boulevard and Dixie Downs Road.

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Three years ago, Reggie Shaw was responsible for the deaths of two men as he was sending and receiving text messages while driving in Cache County.

Students at Dixie High School had the opportunity to hear his story firsthand earlier this month during an assembly according to an article in The Spectrum.

Shaw said he was 19 years old when the accident happened. He was off to work, just like any other day.

“I made the choice to text and drive,” he said. “I’d done it before and didn’t think it was dangerous.”

While on his way to work, Shaw crossed the center line and hit the oncoming vehicle. The vehicle spun and was hit by the vehicle behind Shaw.

“These two men were husbands and fathers,” he said.

Shaw was charged with negligent homicide. He served 30 days in jail and was required to do 100 hours of community service. His service has been talking to youth about the dangers of texting while driving.

“It’s been three years (since the accident), and it (talking about it) never gets easier. This assembly is no easier than the first one,” Shaw said.

He added he hopes he makes a difference.

“It really helps me come to peace with what happened, knowing I might be saving someone else’s life,” Shaw said.

Along with telling his story, he presented facts about car accidents in Utah. According to his presentation, there are DUI accidents every three hours, and people are injured by another in distracted driving accidents every 94 minutes.

Some students were impacted by Shaw’s presentation. T.J. Norton, 16, said he’s tried to text and drive but he doesn’t have the coordination.

“This was impactful because it was a real person, not just a generic person tell you texting is bad,” he said.

Macy Keith, 17, said Shaw’s message was powerful.

“I’ve texted while driving before,” she said. “I try not to, though. It scares me.”

The assembly was part of Red Ribbon Week, a week dedicated to remembering the dangers and prevention of drugs and alcohol abuse.

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There was no moon that morning, but there was a little light coming from the windows of the buildings. Although it was still dark outside, the hotel had already turned off the exterior parking lot lights. As Jim was walking towards the office, he took a step on what he thought was black top, but there was nothing there. Jim fell six feet and landed on his left knee on some pieces of concrete left at the bottom of a culvert inlet. The force tore Jim’s patellar tendon into two pieces. The patellar tendon is the large tendon that attaches your kneecap to your shinbone. Jim incurred medical expenses of approximately $31,000 in connection with this injury to his knee. Because the hotel owner and its insurance company refused to accept any responsibility for this incident, Jim and Colleen Spahr were forced to file a lawsuit against the Rodeway Inn.

When the Rodeway Inn was constructed, the owner built a culvert to allow the natural drainage to continue its flow across the hotel’s property. However, the hotel owner left a 6-foot deep hole on one side of the culvert open. The hole was partially in the parking lot and partially on the lawn. The hotel refused to accept any responsibility for Jim’s injuries and made many excuses why it should not be held accountable, including the excuse that the large hole in its parking lot was not a danger to its guests even in the dark.

The twelve person jury unanimously disagreed with the hotel, concluding that the hotel was 99% at fault and Jim was only 1% at fault. The jury awarded Jim and Colleen a total of $450,000, of which $40,000 was for Colleen’s lost of consortium.

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The Obama administration also said it will seek to ban text messaging by interstate bus drivers and truckers and push states to pass their own laws against driving cars while distracted.

LaHood said the administration also would move to put restrictions on cell phone use by rail operators, truck drivers and interstate bus drivers.

While texting is not yet illegal in Las Vegas, it is in Utah. There currently is legislation being pushed to ban texting in Nevada.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, the chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said of cell phone driving legislation: “Knowing our Legislature, it will have a tough time. Nevadans are independent and like their liberties.”

“Driving while distracted should just feel wrong – just as driving without a seat belt or driving while intoxicated,” LaHood said at the end of a two-day conference on the problem. “We’re not going to break everyone of their bad habits – but we are going to raise awareness and sharpen the consequences.”

The administration also will push to disqualify school bus drivers who are convicted of texting while driving from keeping their commercial driver’s licenses.

The Transportation Department reported that 5,870 people were killed and 515,000 were injured last year in crashes connected to driver distraction, often involving mobile devices or cell phones. Driver distraction was involved in 16 percent of all fatal crashes in 2008 and was more prevalent among young drivers.

“It’s like driving with your eyes closed,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a proponent of a texting ban.

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“The male was conscious and breathing, so that’s a good sign,” he said. “I don’t know if he was wearing his seat belt.”

Both drivers were transported to Dixie Regional Medical Center. Bangerter said the 24-year-old female driver in the other vehicle had minor injuries, but asked to be transported to the hospital.

Ronny Sweat and her daughter Nicole Vasquez saw the accident happen while attempting to turn into the Harmon’s parking lot. Vasquez said she called 911.

Sweat said she stopped, put her flashers on and started directing traffic.

“It was just so slow,” Sweat said.

Vasquez said she went to talk to the driver in the SUV to make sure he was alert.

“People from the community just rushed together to help out,” she said.

Bangerter said the 84-year-old St. George man was flown to a Las Vegas hospital because of neck injuries.

The 24-year-old woman from Ivins, injured her ankle.

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Call the police, even if the accident is minor.  File a complete report with the police.

Get the names, contact information and insurance information of the other drivers.  A car description and license plate number are also helpful.

If a camera is handy, photograph the scene.  Limit your discussion of the accident to the police and insurance agents.  Be truthful.  Only sign documents for them.

Notify your insurance agent immediately after the accident, even at the scene with police present if possible.

Seek medical attention. Naturally, your health and safety should be your first concern and your top priority.  If you are injured, get immediate medical help from a qualified doctor. Don’t delay.  It is a good idea to have a card with relevant medical information for you and your family in your car.

Seek legal counsel.  It is a good idea to talk to an attorney shortly after your accident. An attorney can help you deal with the difficult insurance issues and help you obtain and preserve valuable evidence that will increase the value of your claim.  Your initial consultation with an attorney will be free of charge if someone else caused your injury.  You have absolutely nothing to lose, but much to gain.

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