Distracted driving — and deaths — spike in 2015

Safety consultant Tom Goeltz warns thousands of people a year against the perils of distracted driving — but he was powerless to save his 22-year-old daughter from the threat.

Megan Goeltz, a single mother, was killed in a crash believed to have been the result of a distracted driver. Goeltz was at a stop sign near Afton when another car went airborne and slammed into her Ford Fusion Feb. 29, according to the State Patrol. Goeltz was 13 weeks pregnant when she died.

Her father and mother now help take care of Megan's 3-year-old, Paisley, while grieving the loss of their daughter and her unborn child.

Distracted driving — whether from thumbs on a cellphone, eyes on a GPS, a hand on radio knobs — killed 74 people in Minnesota last year, a 21 percent jump from 2014.

Overall traffic fatalities also spiked to the highest total since 2010, with 411 in 2015 compared with 361 the year before, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS).

Distracted and drunken driving fatalities both increased, while speeding-related fatalities fell 17 percent, to 78 deaths. Deaths attributed to not wearing a seat belt fell 14 percent, to 91.

Officials seem particularly concerned by the spike in distracted driving.

Distractions can come in many forms, including eating, grooming, picking up a dropped item or trying to monitor kids in the back seat, Berger said.

"People aren't taking driving seriously anymore," said Lisa Kons, the traffic safety programs coordinator at the Minnesota Safety Council. "They're just doing way too many things behind the wheel."

Kons works with businesses to promote safe driving, sending them e-mail "blasts" that they can forward to employees. Several of the blasts went out this week, with one playing off the red, white and blue color scheme of patrol lights to remind drivers not to drink over the July 4th weekend.

One in seven Minnesota drivers has a drunken driving conviction, and the 4th tends to be the deadliest holiday for drunken driving, according to the annual DPS "Crash Facts" report. Since 2011, more than 40 percent of fatal crashes on July 4 were linked to drunken driving.

Drunken driving caused 95 deaths last year, up from 88 in 2014, but still on a mostly downward trend since 2000.

Goeltz feels a similar loss over Megan and his unborn grandchild.

"She had had an ultrasound done, and we still have pictures of the baby," he said. "We put a picture in the casket."

Investigators suggested soon after the crash that Drew T. Fleming of Hudson, Wis., "was distracted by several items" in his car before he smashed his Saab into an embankment. The vehicle then flipped and went airborne before striking Goeltz's car.

Tom Goeltz said telling his surviving granddaughter about her mom has been hard. Small moments, such as Paisley finding Megan's bejeweled cellphone, sometimes trigger grief.

"She tilted the phone up, looking at pictures and trying to call her," Goeltz said. "She said, 'Come back down momma — I want to see you.' "

"They think they're going to miss an important text or phone call or e-mail," Goeltz said. "It's not worth it."