Driver Pantless, Watching Porn in Fatal Crash: Police

DETROIT, MI – A pantless 58-year-old driver was watching a pornographic movie on his cellphone when he crashed and rolled his vehicle in a fatal crash about 3:30 a.m Sunday on the Lodge Freeway entrance ramp to Interstate 75 in Detroit, authorities said.

Michigan State Police Lt. Michael Shaw told WWJ that he’s seen strange incidents of distracted driving, but the Sunday incident was a first.

“We see people putting on makeup, we see people doing different things as far as hygiene, as far as reading books, it’s almost to the fact there’s so much technology out there a lot of people are more paying attention to what they’re doing other than driving their cars,” Shaw said.

The driver, who hasn’t been identified, was not wearing a seatbelt and was partially ejected through the sunroof of his 1996 Toyota, WJBK-TV reported. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 10 percent of fatal crashes, 18 percent of injury crashes and 16 percent of all police-reported traffic crashes in 2013, the latest year for which statistics are available, resulted from distracted driving.

“The true role of distraction in crashes may be even higher because pre-crash distractions often leave no evidence to observe, and drivers are understandably reluctant to admit to being distracted following a crash,” Michigan State Police said on the agency’s website.

Distractions include texting, using smartphones, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, grooming, reading (including maps), using a navigation system, watching a video, and adjusting a radio, CD player or MP3 player.

Because sending text messages requires the driver’s visual, manual and cognitive attention, State Police said it is “by far the most alarming distraction.”