A public service announcement...

Back in the summer, a training client explained that they were running late as they had been behind an erratic vehicle on their way out. They opted to hang back and keep an eye on the vehicle to see if they need to call the police. It wasn't long before the vehicle caught the edge of the range road, and the car was pulled into the ditch. Fortunately the driver was not hurt, and the car just needed to be towed out...it could have been a lot worse if the car had hit something or flipped. The reason for the incident? Teenage driver was texted while driving.

More recently there was a local incident were a van driver collided with another vehicle that made a left turn right in front of them. The driver and passenger of the left turn vehicle both died on scene. The van showed no signs of having attempted to swerve or break. The reason? driver was texting. Sure the left turn vehicle may have been in the wrong, but the texting driver will forever have the image of two dead women and know that it may have been avoided had he been paying attention to driving rather than texting. he will have to live with those two deaths forever.

I can't call either of the above events accidents...they aren't...they could have been avoided or minimized with an attentive driver.

Cars go fast, and all it takes is a moment of inattention to cause a wreck; fishing for something in the back seat, answering a cell phone, eating....but what takes even more attention is texting.

Heck, I can't even text and walk!

So...think about the possible consequence of taking your eyes of the road....is it worth it?

All in all, I think texting has almost become an addiction for some people...they seem to get anxious knowing a text is waiting for them...but how often are texts actually anything of long term consequence? Maybe we need to organize a texting intervention for the barn teenagers...

I think a certain teenager's anti texting parents may have been on the right track when they refused to get their daughter a texting phone.

Karen