(This blog post is dedicated to all the distractive drivers that take to the road everyday)
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. I thought it was my “mature” age that was making me an impatient driver in the last few months, but now I realize it’s the distractions that keep people from driving that make me impatient!
I know, I know….. LA is the traffic capital of the world, I should be used to this right? Well I used to be…10 years ago. Driving for me used to be peaceful. I actually looked forward to it. I was a Sales Rep for Kodak for 10 years, and I drove all over the earth. My attitude about driving was great….it was on the company’s time, so I took my time, and enjoyed my CD’s while I drove.
Well today I’m not on company time, I’m on my time, and it’s soooo annoying to be in back of someone who is lost, texting, tweeting, eating, ipoding, ipadding, snap chatting, taking a selfie, putting on make-up, picking their nose in the rear view, changing clothes, diaper changing, couponing, watching the stock market, reading the paper, watching a movie, dog sitting….. (you name it!) all while driving!
Each day, more than 15 people are killed and more than 1,200 people are injured in crashes that were reported to involve a distracted driver. It’s called “Distractive Driving”. A distraction occurs any time you take your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel, and your mind off your primary task: driving safely. Some people still don’t know how dangerous distracted driving is. Others know about the risks of texting and talking while driving, but still choose to do so anyway. They make the mistake of thinking the statistics don’t apply to them!
- In 2009, more than 5,400 people died in crashes that were reported to involve a distracted driver and about 448,000 people were injured.1
- Among those killed or injured in these crashes, nearly 1,000 deaths and 24,000 injuries included cell phone use as the major distraction.1
As much as I love my iPad, and the instant communication that electronics and social networking have brought to the world, it’s also made us a selfish, individualistic society.We spend hours of our time in little boxes of self isolation, where answering back a text or tweet has to be immediate, even at the possible cost of your life or someone else’s.
Everyone has a choice when driving, and those choices can tragically impact a family forever. So if you want to pick your nose in the rear view mirror, or you just can’t wait to text that important message, go ahead, unfortunately your decision may be a fatal one, and it’s not just that tree that you’ll have a collision with, it might be someone’s mother, or grandmother, or son.
Do us all a favor and honor a life this month, take your selfie off the road!
(statistics courtesy of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
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