Texting while driving is a huge epidemic.
It happened again. I was driving down Gloria Street in Van Nuys, CA and witnessed a bad accident. It didn’t register until a couple seconds after it happened; I wasn’t used to seeing accidents on small side streets let alone witnessing the actual moment of the crash. My heart was racing as I knew the results of the accident weren’t good. Thank God they weren’t disastrous.
A teenage girl driving a Hyundai went through a stop sign and hit a Toyota Corolla. She was driving pretty fast. Both the teenager and the person in the Toyota were hurt—not disastrously so, but enough that they had to be taken by ambulance.
Luckily, there was a witness who said the teenage girl was texting and not even looking at the road at all. Thank God there were no deaths in this accident. However, that is not always the case.
Don't let this happen to you!
Statistics show that individuals who drive while sending or reading text messages are 23 percent more likely to be involved in a car crash than other drivers. A crash typically happens within an average of three seconds after a driver is distracted. The United States Department of Transportation notes that cell phones are involved in 1.6 million auto crashes each year that cause a half million injuries and take 6,000 lives.
I would be lying if I claimed that I have never drove while texting. Actually, I used to do it quite a lot, until I nearly caused an accident going through a stop sign. It was quite scary. I thought I could get away by answering “Yes” to a text from my boss, but all it took was a split second to take my attention off the road. Thankfully, I was spared from the humiliation of causing an accident and, possibly, hurting someone.
You can set your iPhone or Android phone to send an automatic message to people texting you when driving. You can also call these people using your car’s Bluetooth connection. Better yet, they can call you. Perhaps, the easiest solution is to wait until you are done driving. If you can’t wait, pull over to the side. It’s so easy! These days, it could be a matter of life and death
Smartphone technology has really enhanced the lives of millions of people. However, it has also caused unnecessary deaths for too many people. Please don’t become one of those deaths or cause one.
