By Rachel Brown
Dalton High School sophomore Dennise Cisneros used to not think that sending text messages while driving was dangerous.
Then she got a lesson in driver’s education that changed her mind. About two weeks before Christmas, she and her brother were in a crash in Dalton when he became distracted while texting behind the wheel, she said.
“I’d seen people (texting) before, but I didn’t really think much of it until that day,” Cisneros said.
She’s one of several students taking a driver’s education class at Dalton High, one of the few schools in the area to offer a comprehensive driving program. Murray County Schools offers classroom instruction but no behind the wheel training. Whitfield County Schools does not offer driver’s education, but any teen in Georgia can complete online training at www.dds.ga.gov/Training/index.aspx.
Lessons in distracted driving have become important components of driver’s education courses since teen drivers on unlimited texting plans started hitting the roads.
Dalton driver’s ed instructor Bob Brotherton questions students in his classes about the need to text while driving. Few texts are actually related to something urgent, he said.
“When I was growing up, there were no (cell) phones,” he told a class of 14 learner’s license holders recently. “You had to stop and put your money in a phone booth. So how is it that important?”
Lawmakers are proposing legislation that would levy a $50 fine and two points against the violator’s driver’s license for an offense. That would be enough to at least slightly deter Murray County High School student Ashley Whipple, who recently got her driver’s license, from texting behind the wheel.
“I wouldn’t do it as much,” Whipple said. “I wouldn’t cut it out totally ... There’s been times like when I’m texting and I’m not way off the road, but I won’t be where I should be ... I think (the proposed law is) a good idea to keep the roads safer, but I don’t think a lot of people would listen to it.”
Several teens at MCHS and DHS say they don’t see a problem with texting while stopped at a red light or stop sign. A few say they text while going down the road, using one hand to complete the task and looking down only briefly to make sure they typed the message correctly. Some teen drivers say they ask their parents to reply to their texts so they can concentrate on driving.
Murray County sophomore Mackenzie Daley, who still has her learner’s permit, said she sends about 1,000 texts a week, but none are sent while driving.
“My mom would not let me,” she said, adding she lacks the ability to control the car and do other tasks at the same time.
Rhonda McGuire, a driver’s ed instructor at MCHS, said she tries to impress on her students that driving distractions are doubly dangerous for them because they are inexperienced.
“We have a large emphasis on distracted driving, especially texting and any technology,” McGuire said.
The school offers the elective course free of charge, and most young drivers take it to meet the 30-hour training requirement state law mandates for teens under 17 who want a class D license. A class D license allows teens to drive without adult supervision but with some additional restrictions, including a nightly curfew.
Steve Zahn of the Dalton Police Department’s traffic enforcement unit said the department conducts a Fatal Vision program for DHS students twice a year. Students wear goggles that simulate the way a drunk driver views the world. Zahn said lessons on distracted driving were added to the curriculum this year. He’s seen head injuries and broken bones from crashes caused by distracted driving in Dalton.
Cisneros said the crash she was in didn’t injure her or her brother, but the driver they hit had to go to the hospital with minor injuries.
Distracted driving isn’t limited to texting and teens, Zahn said. It includes talking on the phone, eating, applying makeup and any other activities that take the driver’s mind off the road.
Dalton State College offered driver’s education for a fee between $200 and $300 for several years, but recently stopped the program after the college’s Continuing Education department shut down at the end of last year because of budget cuts.
