Who’s Responsibility?
by Miki Saxon
Are you one of the millions who talk on your cell phone when driving?
Or are you one of those stupid (my opinion) enough to text and drive?
Does it matter since everybody (except us dinosaurs) does it?
And who is responsible if there is an accident as a result of the distraction?
An interesting question that is currently playing out in court.
Christopher Hill, then 20, told the police he was so distracted by a cellphone call that he ran a red light at 45 miles an hour, hitting Ms. Doyle’s car as it crossed in front of him.
Doyle died and Jennifer Smith, her daughter, is suing Samsung and Sprint.
Ms. Smith argues that the industry’s success in marketing to drivers is the reason people like Mr. Hill do not change their behavior or pay attention to what she characterizes as faint warnings by the industry.
A previous suit in 2003 was thrown out of court.
Now anyone who follows the tobacco lawsuits knows how difficult it is to prove that companies knew their product had risks even when testimony and exhibits are overwhelming.
So it seems a no-brainer to assume that there is no smoking gun for plaintiffs to find.
But—the $150 billion industry has aggressively marketed to drivers for 50 years.
Bob Lucky, an executive director at Bell Labs from 1982-92, said he knew that drivers talking on cellphones were not focused fully on the road. But he did not think much about it or discuss it and supposed others did not, either, given the industry’s booming fortunes.
“If you’re an engineer, you don’t want to outlaw the great technology you’ve been working on,” said Mr. Lucky, now 73. “If you’re a marketing person, you don’t want to outlaw the thing you’ve been trying to sell. If you’re a C.E.O., you don’t want to outlaw the thing that’s been making a lot of money.”
Not everybody felt that way.
In 1990, David Strayer, a junior researcher at GTE, which later became part of Verizon, noticed more drivers who seemed to be distracted by their phones, and it scared him. He asked a supervisor if the company should research the risks.
“Why would we want to know that?” Mr. Strayer recalled being told.
Bell Labs is gone and many of those involved are retired and, like Lucky, have no real incentive to lie about what went on (if they were even inclined that way)—in other words, no actively vested interest.
Where does corporate responsibility lie in situations such as this?
It’s a lengthy article, but one well worth reading.
And you might ask yourself how many of your calls from behind the wheel are really so critical they couldn’t wait; and those that really achieve critical status. And of those that truly meet the critical test, how many would take so long that you couldn’t pull off the road?
As to texting, I can only hope that when you’re busy looking at the screen and hitting the keys that you run into an inanimate object as opposed to one with humans involved.
Either way, the next time you start getting involved in anything while driving ask yourself this: how well would you sleep for the rest of your life if you were Christopher Hill.
Image credit: Mike “Dakinewavamon” Kline on flickr
