The fact that most cars and trucks come equipped with an event data recorder was news to me and most of the savvy friends and colleagues I surveyed. But EDRs have been onboard our vehicles for many years.
The devices record a few seconds of information about your car or truck before, during and after an “event,” when the air bag goes off or when you hit the brakes hard.
“They give a snapshot,” says John Davis, longtime host of MotorWeek on Maryland Public Television. “They are used in accident investigations just like the ‘black box’ on an airplane.”
It was data from EDRs that helped Maryland State Police determine that the two cars involved in the deaths of the Beltway 6 in March had been speeding at more than 100 miles per hour just before that midday horror.
Five road construction workers and an inspector were killed while doing their jobs on the west side of Interstate 695. Since then, the drivers of the cars have been charged with felony manslaughter.
During a court hearing earlier this month, a Baltimore County prosecutor said State Police had obtained a warrant for the EDRs in both vehicles and discovered that one of them was hitting 111 mph at the time of the collision. The second car, The Sun has since reported, was found to have been doing 108 mph.
Sounds appalling, but who is shocked to learn of the possibility of three-digit speeds?
Who has driven the Beltway or any of the interstate highways in and around Baltimore and not seen a car or pickup truck zipping by at 30 or 40 mph above the posted speed limit?
Two weeks ago, while I was driving west and keeping up with traffic at about 78 mph on Interstate 70 near New Market, a sedan blew past me on the left and out of sight in seconds. The speed limit on I-70 is easy to remember: It’s 70. That car had to be doing 100.
Other times on I-70 west of Frederick, I’ve watched guys in compacts racing in heavy traffic, hitting 90 or 95 while weaving between other vehicles. I’ve also seen that on the Jones Falls Expressway and I-97 in Anne Arundel County. It’s crazy, but common.
So let’s say I was shocked and horrified, but not really surprised, by the tragedy of the Beltway 6: One woman and five men, including a father and son, killed in an instant at work, their deaths causing unspeakable pain for their families.
A lot of self-centered people recklessly drive 20 to 40 mph over the speed limit, fully confident that, while stressing out the drivers around them, they’ll have all the skill and reflexes necessary to avoid collisions.
To slow them down, we should deploy more speed cameras on highways, and not just in work zones. A couple of cameras on a notoriously dangerous stretch of the JFX have caused drivers to ease up and avoid fines. It makes you wonder why we haven’t seen the technology used more extensively on interstates.
“Speed camera enforcement is a proven, effective tool to reduce speeding and prevent crashes,” says Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “Slowing down vehicles is one of the most important things communities can do to improve safety.”
We should stop relying on state troopers to enforce speed limits; dispatch them to other duties — working with Baltimore police to make the city safer, for instance — while the cameras catch speeders.
I proposed cameras on highways before, but I’ve been itching to push it again: Technology should be used to enforce the traffic laws.
But an interesting thing happened on the way to today’s column: I was reminded that, while reckless speeding contributes to thousands of highway deaths, it is not the leading cause of the more than 100,000 motor vehicle crashes that occur each year in Maryland.
Nor is driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The leading cause of crashes is distracted driving: People who should be watching the road instead of reading tweets or text messages or doing something else — arguing with a passenger, trying to adjust the bass in a car stereo system, punching up Dave Matthews on Spotify, applying ketchup to Wendy’s Hot & Crispy Fries.
We heard a lot about distracted driving a decade ago, as smartphones became more popular. But lately, not so much.
And yet, distracted driving remains the top reason for crashes.
In Maryland, from 2017 through 2021, distracted driving caused nearly half of all crashes, averaging 53,321 collisions per year, according to the state Department of Transportation. Among those were an average of 195 fatal crashes per year resulting in 209 deaths annually.
During the same five-year period, speed and aggressive driving combined to cause an average of 12,899 crashes per year, with 125 of them fatal and accounting for 137 deaths.
Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs was related to 6,632 crashes per year, on average, from 2017 to 2021. Of those, 152 were fatal and accounted for 169 deaths.
I’m by no means downplaying speed and drunkenness as factors in all the property damage, injury and death that occurs out there.
But it’s other behaviors, the things we do while driving — things that too many of us have gotten too used to — that account for most of the road crashes in this state.
