LoginNTSB Says Cell Phone Distraction Cause of 2023 Wisconsin Student Fatality
The National Transportation Safety Board released its final report on the fatal pedestrian crash in the Town of Excelsior, Wisconsin, citing texting as the main cause.
A 2016 Blue Bird school bus operated by the Reedsburg School District stopped on May 12, 2023 to board students in the westbound lane of State Highway 23/33. It is a two-lane, two-way roadway with paved shoulders and a 55-mph speed limit. The school bus slowed, nearly to a stop, and the driver deactivated the flashing amber lights to activate the front and rear flashing red lights. The bus driver also extended the stop arm.
At that point, a 17-year-old motorist behind the wheel of a 2010 Ford F-150 pickup braked and swerved to the right, sideswiping the school bus’ right-rear corner, continuing across the paved shoulder, onto a private driveway, striking and killing a 13-year-old student who was waiting to board. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The pickup driver, Kevin Green, only had a probationary license at the time of the incident. His response to the slowing and stopped school buses was too late, the NTSB said, because “he was distracted by his cell phone texting activity.” The pickup truck’s high and blunt hood design, combined with its speed at the time of the collision, estimated to be 54 mph, contributed to the student pedestrian’s death, the report adds.
Green was charged with homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle.
NTSB noted that the pickup truck’s final resting position was about 290 feet west of the rear of the school bus, and the student was about 100 feet northwest of the initial impact from the truck. The truck driver had minor injuries, and no other students or the school bus driver were injured. The school bus was not equipped with seatbelts.
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The agency found “that a cell phone lock-out system that disables the use of features that are not related to the driving task can reduce cell phone–related distracted driving crashes. Likewise, driver monitoring systems that can detect and alert a distracted driver and bring their attention back to the driving task can also reduce cell phone–related distracted driving crashes.”
Additionally, NTSB said that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) 2013 Driver Distraction Guidelines are “lacking” as the agency does not incorporate advanced technologies that have been introduced in the past 12 years and only focuses on visual-manual distraction of in-vehicle electronic devices.
Meanwhile, the NTSB added that the pickup truck was not equipped with collision avoidance technology such as forward collision warning or automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. Had the pickup truck been equipped with an AEB system, NTSB said the collision with the school bus could have been avoided or at least mitigated, thus preventing or mitigating the collision with the student.
As a result, the NTSB recommended that NHTSA develop and publish “Driver Distraction Guidelines that address the design of current original equipment in-vehicle electronic devices, portable electronic devices and aftermarket electronic devices to prevent driver distraction.” The agency reiterated its recommendation to cell phone manufacturers to develop a “distracted driving lock-out mechanism that will automatically disable any driver-distracting functions when a vehicle is in motion and install the mechanism in the default setting on all new devices and apply it during major software updates.”
Five more recommendations were reiterated to NHTSA following the crash. NTSB calls for NHTSA to develop and apply testing protocols to assess the performance of forward collision avoidance systems in passenger vehicles at various velocities, including high speed and high velocity-differential. It also calls on the agency to expand the New Car Assessment Program 5-star rating system to include a scale that rates the performance of forward collision avoidance and to develop performance test criteria for vehicle designs that reduce injuries to pedestrians.
NTSB also wants NHTSA to develop performance test criteria for manufacturers to use in evaluating the extent to which automated pedestrian safety systems in light vehicles will prevent or mitigate pedestrian injury and to incorporate pedestrian safety systems, including pedestrian collision avoidance systems and other more passive safety systems, into the New Car Assessment Program.
Ford Motor Company is urged to install forward collision avoidance systems that include, at a minimum, a forward collision warning component, as standard equipment on all new vehicles.
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