Texting-driving accidents jump

Andrew and Jenna Stratmeyer, like many young people, do their share of text-messaging - just not when they're behind the wheel of a car.

That's because the siblings from Hartford have seen - and felt - the damage that can be done by a driver distracted by a cell phone.

The two were injured in July 2007 in a four-car crash on Highway 38. Jeffery Vierick, who was 17 at the time, was checking text messages when he rear-ended Jenna Stratmeyer's Chevy Cavalier with his Dodge pickup near Buffalo Ridge. He was cited for careless driving.
Stories such as that of the Stratmeyers are becoming more common. The number of accidents in South Dakota that authorities blame on drivers who are distracted by cell phone use has jumped 60 percent in the four years since the Department of Highway Safety began collecting such data.

In 2004, the number of accidents tied to cell phone use was 82. By 2008, it had reached 138.

But those numbers don't tell the whole story, officials say. For an officer responding to an accident to identify cell phone use as a contributing factor, the driver who used the phone usually must report it, Sioux Falls Police Chief Doug Barthel said.

"It's difficult to say how accurate those numbers can be," Barthel said. "Unless there's admission, there's no way to know."

While eyewitnesses might say a driver was using a cell phone, such allegations are difficult to prove unless that driver's cell phone records are subpoenaed.

And because the department rarely would do that, Barthel said, the reported number of cell phone-related accidents probably is lower than the actual number.

Andrew Stratmeyer, 20, was driving his sister's car when the accident happened. It took a year for him to recover from two chipped vertebrae. Jenna Stratmeyer, 23, couldn't work for four months and endured months of physical therapy in her recovery from broken ribs, hip damage and bleeding in her lungs and brain.

Andrew Stratmeyer said he sometimes talks on his cell phone while he drives, but he never checks text messages. The accident caused his sister to rethink text messaging, too.

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