EDITORIAL: Traffic deaths soar while motorists play with their cellphones

Nevada traffic fatalities climbed to their highest number in a decade last year, as 331 people lost their lives on state roadways. That was a 6.4 percent increase from 2017 and continues a deadly trend that started around 2009.

“In 2008, we were at 324,” Andrew Bennett of the Department of Public Safety told the Review-Journal, “then we dropped to the mid-200s from about 2009 to 2013, and then we saw a steady climb into the 300s in 2014.”

Of course, the statistics don’t take into effect population growth or mileage driven. But Nevada has mirrored a troubling drift upward in national fatality statistics. While U.S. traffic deaths had been declining for decades, they began rising again in 2016, before falling slightly last year. All this despite the fact that automobiles are safer than ever before.

It’s worth noting that legalized marijuana may be contributing to the increase. The DPS revealed that of the 297 fatal crashes in 2017, 29 involved drivers under the influence of marijuana and 82 featured a driver who had ingested multiple substances. By comparison, the number of fatal Nevada accidents in which a driver was impaired solely by alcohol was 50.

State officials also blamed a lack of seat belt use for the 2018 uptick.

No doubt a variety of factors have contributed to the carnage. But the elephant in the room remains those ubiquitous electronic devices. Any regular driver of the Las Vegas grid can offer plenty of tales about fending off swerving or dangerous motorists who are in the thrall of their cellphones.

This is more than anecdotal. “Americans are using their phones in riskier ways while driving,” USA Today reported last week, “worsening the nation’s crash crisis.”

The paper reported that a recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found a rapid increase in the number of drivers who were observed playing with their phones.

“People are talking on their phone less than they were in 2014, and they’re manipulating it more,” David Kidd, a senior research scientist for an arm of the IIHS told USA Today, “which is things that include texting and potentially browsing the internet or potentially using it for navigation, audio, music.”

Yes, distracted driving can result from a number of behaviors that don’t involve a cellphone. But the devices appear to have a unique and dangerous hold on many motorists.

Perhaps when the Metropolitan Police Department is conducting one of its high-profile campaigns to nab drunken or drugged drivers, red-light runners and reckless speeders, it should also be on the lookout for cellphone use behind the wheel.