Las Vegas family puts face on ‘epidemic’ of distracted driving

WASHINGTON -- Richard and Jenifer Watkins, a young Las Vegas couple married just nine months, set off across town to help a friend whose car had stalled on the highway.

It was close to midnight when they reached their destination on northbound U.S. Highway 95 near Tropicana Avenue.

After they pulled onto the left shoulder behind the sputtering car, Richard Watkins glanced back, and "that is where I saw the girl in the truck."

In a flash, the lives of the couple took a catastrophic turn that night, Jan. 18, 2004. A 17-year-old girl driving with a learner's permit crashed her half-ton pickup into the passenger rear of the Watkinses' 1973 Mustang. She was doing 75 mph, talking on a cell phone and tuning the radio.

Richard Watkins, now 27, suffered a brain injury that erased childhood memories and causes daily migraines and uneven sleep.

His wife was hospitalized for seven weeks at University Medical Center, undergoing a half dozen surgeries for injuries to her neck, right arm, right elbow, liver, spleen and kidney. Her back, two ribs and her pelvis were fractured. Her shoulder was dislocated.

Jenifer Watkins, 26, spent a year-and-a-half in rehabilitation, relearning to walk and talk and learn how to function again.

She said she is fidgety and gets easily confused, and loses her balance and falls if she is not careful. She cannot lift more than 20 pounds.

"Life will never be the same for both of them," said Sandy Watkins, Richard Watkins' mother.

The Watkins family was presented at a national transportation safety conference Tuesday as a tragic outcome when motorists become distracted by their phones and other handheld electronics.

With some people who lost family members, the Las Vegans stood beside Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood as he sought to build momentum behind the spread and enforcement of laws to ban the use of such devices while driving.

In a speech to the conference, LaHood called distracted driving an epidemic: "It's an epidemic because everyone has a cell phone -- and everyone thinks they can use it while driving. They can't."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted-driving related crashes caused nearly 5,500 deaths and 450,000 injuries last year.

In Nevada over the past five years, at least 63 fatalities have been attributed to collisions in which a factor was distracted driving, whether it was cell phone use or a driver putting on makeup or changing a CD in the vehicle, according to state figures.

Officials said that number is probably conservative because authorities can have difficulty in determining at a crash scene whether a distraction was involved, and sometimes motorists don't fess up.

Thirty states ban texting while driving. Of those, eight states ban all handheld phone use, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Nevada has no laws against texting or the use of cell phones while driving.

In the past legislative session, a bill by state Sen. Shirley Breeden, D-Henderson, that would have outlawed texting while driving passed the Senate but was killed in the Assembly. A bill by Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, that would have banned the use of cell phones and PDAs by drivers younger than 18 was killed also.

Traci Pearl, a highway safety representative with the Nevada Department of Public Safety, said three bills covering distracted driving are being filed for the next legislative session.

Manendo said cell phone restrictions have lacked grass-roots support in past years, and he was uncertain whether enough will exist to propel new legislation.

"I'm optimistic, but I wouldn't bet money on it," he said. "It's probably there are just people that are very conservative who don't want any infringement on their right to be behind the wheel. But it is not a right, it is a privilege."

State and local safety agencies are preparing to launch an awareness campaign on distracted driving in the fall, said Meg Ragonese, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Sandy Watkins works for the Metropolitan Police Department as a crossing guard, usually stationed at Vegas Drive and Decatur Boulevard. From that post, she sees distracted drivers "all over the place. People are talking on the phones, texting, eating, all that."

She said she is trying to start a petition drive in favor of a state law. She and her daughter-in-law make presentations in Clark County schools, telling the family's story to young people about to obtain driving permits. They show pictures of the crushed Mustang.

In the meantime, Richard Watkins, who is not working, and Jenifer Watkins, a student at the College of Southern Nevada, live with Sandy Watkins and her husband, Ron, a distribution clerk at United Health.

"I basically try to keep them organized because they are not very organized anymore," Sandy Watkins said. "They have a hard time remembering things ."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.