A Des Moines elementary school teacher’s condition improved to
fair on Monday, after being hit by a car while riding his bicycle near
Alleman last week.
Maria Claussen, 17, of Elkhart allegedly struck
John Meyer, 42, of Ankeny while she was driving a Chevrolet Lumina in
the 1700 block of Northeast 142nd Avenue at about 8 p.m. Friday.
The
initial indication was that Claussen was texting while driving, which
is illegal in Iowa. No charges have been filed in the crash, but the
investigation remains ongoing, said Sgt. Jana Rooker, Polk County
sheriff’s office spokeswoman.
Meyer teaches special education at
Garton Elementary School on Des Moines’ east side. He was initially
listed in critical condition at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, but
he’s gradually improved through the weekend, a hospital spokesman said.
His family and Garton colleagues declined to comment Monday.
Distracted
driving, including the use of mobile phones and other devices, has led
to 7,224 crashes, 3,459 injuries and 27 deaths on Iowa roads from 2002
through Oct. 9, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation.
The
crash occurred on the eve of National Teen Driver Safety Week. Drivers
who text behind the wheel don’t realize how much time their eyes are off
the road, said Daniel McGehee, director of the Human Factors and
Vehicle Safety Research Program at the University of Iowa Public Policy
Center.
“The most you can safely have your eyes off the road is
about 1.75 seconds to 2 seconds, and anything beyond that you start to
see serious lane degradation,” McGehee said. “Our research shows texting
takes eyes off the road between 4 and 6 seconds, which is extremely
dangerous.”
According to recent Nielsen Co. sampling of 65,000
phone records, text messages are the dominant form of communication
among teenagers and young adults, surpassing voice communications.
Comparing
the second three months of 2010 to the same period in 2009, voice
communication between people ages 13 to 17 declined from about 800
minutes per month to 600 minutes per month. During the same period,
however, teenagers in that age group increased texts sent per month from
3,000 to 3,500, the research showed.
Breaking the texting-while-driving trend will be a tough task, McGehee said.
“Even
if people put their phones in their pocket and make a concerted effort
not to text or look at their phone while they drive, there is a strong
compulsion to take a peek,” he said. “We’ve monitored people’s heart
rates and it spikes up when you know there’s a message. There will need
to be some social change.”