Inspirational and Informational Pieces

TXT L8R

The sun’s shining, it’s right around 75 degrees outside, and it’s just you, your best friend, and a road trip down the scenic coastline. The top is down as you cruise around in your little VW Bug convertible your parents got you for your sixteenth birthday. The radio station DJ’s totally know your mood right now, playing your favorite songs, and tossing in some new ones that you’ll be downloading the second you get to your hotel. Basically, a perfect day.

But it can all go wrong in a heartbeat. All it takes is one distraction.

The PING! of your iPhone. The taunting glow of the screen. The desire to see what’s going on with your friends back home. Seems harmless enough to check it, right? You’ve snuck your phone out during class the entire year and never got caught. Or you did, but didn’t care. So where’s the harm of checking what Stacey has to say? She is, after all, one of your best friends who sadly couldn’t join you. So you reach for your phone, ready to see what she’s up to.

Is it really worth it though, wrecking your brand new car and critically injuring yourself and your best friend, just to see Stacey’s text of “hey girlyyyy ;P miss you”?

Is it really worth it?

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It’s proven. There’s facts, witnesses, victims, anything you could need for something to be proven. Texting and driving can be fatal.

In 2011 alone, 3,331 people were killed in car accidents involving distracted drivers. Now, in 2010, 3,267 lives were lost. That number shouldn’t be rising. That number also doesn’t include how many were injured due to distracted driving. Want to take a guess? 10,000? 15,000? 50,000? Try 387,000. This is all according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Now, what exactly is distracted driving?

Distracted driving includes the following: 1. Texting, whether it’s looking down briefly to see who sent you a message or actually reading and replying to the text. Texting requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention, which is why it is the most dangerous activity to do while driving. 2. Using a cell phone or smartphone. Even if you aren’t texting, it’s still dangerous to try and answer your phone unless using Bluetooth or OnStar. 3. Eating and drinking. One of the things you must do when taking your driving test is to have your hands at 2 and 10 on the wheel. They aren’t telling you to do that for no reason. It’s important to have both hands on the wheel at all times, because it makes you more in control of the car than if you were only using one hand. Yes, fast food joints don’t exactly help with this, but make something fun out a lunch on the go. Pack a picnic and eat at a little park instead. 4. Talking to passengers. It doesn’t seem that that would cause an accident, but what if you get in a heated conversation with your passenger and suddenly you’re both arguing? That diverts your concentration, so try to keep conversations light and friendly, don’t broach any sensitive topic until you’re safely off the road. 5. Grooming. Get ready for your date, your job, or your school day at home. Chances are you’ve got a bigger mirror there than the tiny one in your car. If you need to freshen up a little bit, wait until you’re there and parked, then fix yourself up. 6. Reading, including maps. Nowadays, GPSs are in nearly everyone’s car, but if you don’t have on and are using a map, pull over. The stress of being lost, combined with trying to concentrate on the road and the map is just an accident waiting to happen. Pull over, sort yourself out and find your location, plot your trip, and then go back to driving. It’ll be much easier. 7. Using a navigation system. Now, I know I mentioned a GPS above, but they do have their share of distracting aspects. If you aren’t paying attention and all of a sudden a mechanical voice is telling you to “Turn left NOW” then you better have you passenger start dialing emergency services right away. If you’re using a GPS, pay attention to the pre-warnings, such as “In 500 feet, turn left.” It’ll be safer. 8. Watching a video. Now come on, common sense kicks in eventually. Why are you watching a video while driving? Do I really need to explain why this is dangerous?  9. Adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player. If the radio station static is bugging you have a passenger change it, or wait until it clears up. Don’t fiddle around waiting for a non-static filled station. If your music is that important to you, you should’ve plugged in an MP3 or iPod and put it on shuffle and repeat before you even left you driveway.

So, those are some of the most common activities that cause distracted driving.

Now, here are some more statistics. Don’t you just love those? It’s like being in school all over again. But this is where that dreaded math comes in. Texting diverts a drivers attention for an average of 4.6 seconds. If you’re driving at 55 miles per hour, you’re basically driving across a football field while blindfolded. It’s also highly unlikely that it’s just you and the open field. So in those 100 yards, how many cars, people, animals, and trees are you going to hit? Texting behind the wheel basically makes you 23 times more likely to crash. According to AT&T’s Teen Driver Survey last year, 97% of fifteen to nineteen-year-olds understand the dangers of distracted driving. Guess what though? 43% of them still do it anyway.

Now, I’m going to be Captain Obvious here. There’s nothing you can say in a text or a call that is important enough to risk losing your own life, or worse, taking someone else’s.

Picture a court room. A sobbing family, minus one, because their child is now six feet under courtesy of a distracted driver. A somber jury with a tired, sage-like judge. A prosecutor and a defense attorney. And you. On the stand. Do you believe that the judge and jury will consider the fact that you just had to know that Stacey was missing you? That they will pity you because you were on a road trip with one of your friends and just had to see Stacey’s ;P? That they will understand the temptation of that PING! sound?

No.

They won’t.

You’ll be charged with vehicular homicide and distracted driving, and you’ll likely be found guilty.

All because you couldn’t wait until a rest stop or the hotel to read the text from Stacey.

Was it worth it?

If you’re driving, turn the phone on silent or even completely off. I promise you, it won’t kill you. It won’t hurt. It might just save you, and maybe even a stranger.

So I have a challenge for you. Just like I always do at the end of one of my speeches and essays. You can take a stand. You can TXT L8R and join the Arrive in Style campaign supported by Toyota and Teen Vogue, or you can join CBS and take the No Text Zone Pledge.

I myself am currently in the process of joining Arrive in Style. Want to know how you can, too? Make the promise at www.teenvogue.com/arriveinstyle and take the pledge. Then, if you would like, but the promise ring from Dogeared at  www.dogeared.com/pledgering and show your friends and family. Finally you can download select apps to your phone that can do a variety of things to make you a safer driver, like AT&T’s DriveMode which automatically sends customizable reply to incoming messages once your car exceeds 25 miles per hour. Cool, right? DriveSafe.ly reads you texts to you out loud and lets you respond verbally, keeping it hands-free and allowing you to keep your eyes on the road. Those are just two of many apps that allow you to be a safe, undistracted driver.

So ask yourself next time you’re driving and you get a text, is it really worth checking and answering? Is it worth you life and someone else’s?

~~~~Facts from Teen Vogue and Toyota's Arrive in Style campaign, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.~~~~