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Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper David Arras won't forget witnessing a recent fatal traffic crash on Interstate 94, the crash his dashboard camera caught on tape. But Arras, 42, of Eau Claire, a 19-year veteran, also won't soon forget his interview of the man driving the car that slammed into the rear of the large motor coach carrying members of a band. The collision killed the man's wife of 49 years. "I asked him twice at the hospital and he said, 'I never saw your car. I saw the bus but not your squad car,' " Arras said about his interview with John Bradshaw, 75, of Eden Valley, Minn. "He just felt so bad. He knew what had happened. It was awful. "My car had so many lights on; I don't know how he could possibly not see my car," said Arras, admitting that he wonders why Bradshaw hit the bus if he'd actually seen it. "This was a tragic accident, one that still plays in my mind daily. It's probably the worst I will ever see." Whatever the reason, Bradshaw may have been operating the car but not "driving" it, according to Capt. Jeff Frenette of the State Patrol's Northwest Region. "What are people doing that they don't see a stopped bus, a stopped squad car or fire truck along the road? What are they engaged in, other than driving? That's a legitimate question," Frenette said. "There are so many things going on in vehicles now that many drivers are not driving, they're operating a vehicle of thousands of pounds at a high rate of speed," he said. "They might be talking, texting, using the cell phone, tuning the radio, looking for something in the vehicle, eating and other things. They all take away from the job of driving. "People need to be attentive," Frenette added. "You're the one in charge of your destiny at a lot of levels." Bradshaw and his wife, Joan Bradshaw, 76, were headed from Minnesota to Illinois. They stopped in Hudson for a bite to eat. For some unknown reason, their car stayed in the right lane as it came upon Arras' marked squad car, which was a short distance behind the motor coach he'd pulled over for speeding at 12:56 p.m. June 1. "It was a straight stretch and level," Arras said of that section of I-94 in Dunn County, a few miles west of Eau Claire. "I couldn't have asked for a better place to stop a motor coach." Arras had forgotten the ticket for the bus driver, so he returned to his car to print one. "I was talking to myself in the car about forgetting the ticket and here comes Mr. Bradshaw," Arras said. "I heard a swoosh of air. It was surreal. I thought at the last minute he would swerve and miss it, like it happens out here." Instead, the car hit the bus carrying eight passengers. The car crumpled and skipped into the adjacent eastbound lane. The Bradshaws both were wearing seat belts, likely saving Mr. Bradshaw. His wife's body was too severely injured to survive. "People have to look forward and remember they have a vehicle that can kill somebody," Arras said. No one has an explanation for Bradshaw's accident, nor for two other I-94 accidents in recent months in which truck drivers ran into the back of two other semis. Two people were killed. In many accident cases, drivers are distracted. Those distractions vary, but regardless, those distractions lead to injury and deaths. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports reveal distracted driving related crashes caused nearly 5,500 deaths and 450,000 injuries during 2009, according to Randy Romanski, transportation safety chief for the State Patrol. Frenette said drivers experience a sense of driving amnesia by failing to remember covering a section of roadway. "I think we've all had highway hypnosis, where we don't remember driving," he said. "It happens to all of us as we drive because it becomes mundane, and we think of other things in life as we operate the vehicle instead of driving it." Highway hypnosis also is called white line fever and allows a person to drive great distances in a seemingly normal state but be mentally focused elsewhere. "It comes down to people taking responsibility for their actions," Frenette said. "Sure, you can drive defensively, looking out for the other guy, but in order to do that you must also be paying attention to what you're doing. "People need to think about what they are doing in their vehicles and the risk they are putting themselves in and others in on the highways," he said. "They need to ask: "How do I ensure I can get to where I want to go safely?" Frenette said there is a "certain segment" of drivers who will not be compliant. "The move over law and other laws don't create a zone of safety; it's just the law, and we hope motorists will comply on their own," he said, adding that too many drivers simply use their vehicles as a method of getting from one place to another without being attentive drivers. "There is an apathy of driving, and that's hard for law enforcement to get its arms around," he said. (21112 views)
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