Crash victims seek crackdown on texting drivers

DOVER -- David and Linda Kubert remember everything from that September day.

They’d been out together on their Harley, riding along a winding road in Morris County.

They can picture the curve ahead, the pickup truck coming toward them. They can see the young driver through the windshield, his elbows on the steering wheel, his face angled down toward what police would later determine was his cell phone.

"The next minute we were on the ground," Linda Kubert said.

David and Linda Kubert, of Dover, each lost a leg when their motorcycle was struck by a pickup truck driven by a teen driver they say was texting. The couple are pushing for stronger penalties for drivers texting while driving.

Both she and her husband lost a leg in the crash. The teenage driver received three tickets that could result in a fine.

Nearly a dozen surgeries later, the Kuberts have begun a campaign to put more teeth into penalties for motorists who flout New Jersey’s ban on using cell phones without hands-free equipment.

The Dover couple, both 56, say they’re particularly troubled by what they consider the weak punishment for those who text-message behind the wheel, an activity shown by research to be far more dangerous than driving drunk.

"You take somebody’s life or you hurt someone, I think you should go to jail," Linda Kubert said. "We’re in jail, kind of. We’re prisoners here, basically."

The crash that changed the Kuberts’ life occurred Sept. 21 in Mine Hill, not far from their home. The Kuberts were on their motorcycle, with David in front. In the seconds afterward, David Kubert knew he was in desperate shape.

"My leg is off," he recalls crying out to his wife. Then, seeing her sprawled on the pavement, he struggled to crawl toward her.

They underwent more than six hours of surgery at Morristown Memorial Hospital. Doctors were uncertain whether David Kubert would live.

The driver of the pickup truck, 18-year-old Kyle Best of Wharton, was issued summonses by a Wharton police officer for using a cell phone without a hands-free device, careless driving, and making an unsafe lane change. Best did not return a call for comment, and the family turned away a reporter who knocked on the door Friday.

Authorities, saying the case remains under investigation, have not specified whether Best was talking or text-messaging at the time of the crash. Either way, the Kuberts contend, the teen was clearly distracted when he crossed the center line.

Their hope is that with stronger penalties in place, motorists will think twice before picking up the phone. The fine for texting or talking without a hands-free device now stands at $100. "One hundred dollars doesn’t even pay for our medicine," Linda Kubert said, referring to the two dozen pill bottles that sit atop the refrigerator in the couple’s home. "What’s $100 to somebody these days?"

The Kuberts’ campaign, like their recovery, is in its early stages. David Kubert has written a letter to state Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who is expected to become Senate president next year. Kubert said he plans to write to several more legislators, asking them to toughen the law.

"There have to be stricter penalties," David Kubert said. "That’s the only thing that is going to stop it."

Researchers have long warned about the perils of talking on a cell phone while driving. More recently, attention has turned to texting, a far more immersive activity than speaking.

One study by the Transport Research Laboratory, a Britain-based group that examines road and vehicle safety, found that a driver’s reaction time slowed 35 percent when text-messaging. By contrast, reaction time slowed 12 percent among motorists whose blood alcohol level was at the legal limit.

A separate study released in July by researchers at Virginia Tech found that motorists who text are 23 times more likely to be involved in a crash or a near-crash than drivers who are not distracted.

New Jersey is one of 19 states banning text-messaging for all drivers, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, but only in Utah do penalties approach the punishment for driving under the influence.

Under Utah’s law, which took effect in May, someone caught texting and driving faces up to three months in jail and a fine up to $750. If an accident causes injury or death, the penalty may be increased to as much as 15 years in prison, with a fine up to $10,000.

New Jersey law enforcement agencies issue an average of 10,000 citations each month for cell phone violations, said Pam Fischer, director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety. The problem, Fischer said, is that nearly everyone today uses cell phones in their cars.

And despite the dangers, many of them are texting. In a survey by the AAA Foundation, one in seven drivers admitted to texting behind the wheel. Another survey, released just last week, found the problem to be even worse among the youngest drivers.

According to the survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center, a quarter of teenage drivers admitted to texting, and almost half said they’d been passengers when another teen texted behind the wheel.

READJUSTED LIVES

The Kuberts recognize the difficulty of forcing change, but they’re approaching it with the same determination they’ve applied to their own recovery.

They are recuperating at a relatively fast pace, and doctors believe both will be able to walk again with the help of prosthetics. So far they have avoided infection.Throughout the grueling process, they’ve learned how much they miss little pleasures.

"Taking a shower, you know," Linda Kubert said. "Getting up out of bed at night. You can’t just get up out of bed. Chasing around my grandchildren. We can’t go to the grocery store."

They know that time will come. David Kubert, a Verizon employee, said he plans to return to work. He’s equally eager to get back on a motorcycle.

Both he and his wife are members of the North Jersey Legends HOG chapter, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle club. Over the summer, they rode through Maine, New Hampshire and Canada.

They say they look forward to the day when they can climb on a Harley together, perhaps knowing their advocacy work has prevented a lost limb or a lost life."Nobody thinks it can happen to them," Linda Kubert said. "We don’t want to see this happen to someone else."