Texting and Driving – A Top Killer of Our Roads

As someone who is still a fairly new driver, I am flabbergasted at the things I see people doing while driving. I am someone who focuses solely on driving. If I have my kids in the car, I require utmost silence from them at all times. Why? Because one second of being distracted could take our lives, and I want to avoid that from happening. There is one thing I see many people doing while driving, texting & talking on their phones. This is something I hate. With a passion. These people are not only putting their own life at risk, but mine as well.

When I am a passenger in a vehicle, I get very annoyed if the driver is texting and driving. Hubby knows this quite well. I have been known to have a full out snap out on him for doing it. There was one instance he was on the phone on route to vehicle and I had the keys. I unlocked the vehicle, we got in and I refused to hand him the keys until he got off the phone. At first he thought I was kidding, but after another 5 minutes of him on this call he knew I was serious. When he finally got off the phone, I handed him his keys and we didn’t speak for the rest of our adventure out.

This event got under my skin and I told myself that is something I will never, ever do.

Texting and Driving Kills, Period. 

I don’t care if you’ve had your licence a year, 20 years or 50 years… when you text and drive, you are putting everyone’s life at risk. You are intentionally distracting yourself from what you should be focusing on, for a simple little text that could wait. My theory is, if a person can send it in a text message it is not important. If it is important, why didn’t they call? I would still ignore the call however. I am a person that hates text messaging. I know, shocking. I am only 26, I am suppose to love text messaging. I don’t. I find it impersonal and just plain rude. When someone sends me a text, half the time I do not respond for quite some time. I do not drop what I am doing to respond to a text. If they wanted to chat, they could of called since obviously they have my phone number.

Put me behind the wheel of my vehicle, and my phone becomes nothing to me. It sits in its holster and it doesn’t move or get touched. It is in view as it sits on my dash so my eyes never wander if it does happen to go off, but it is not touched. I have specific ring tones for specific people so I always know who’s calling. All calls and texts can wait until I am where I am headed too.

My phone is also what I use for music. When I turn my vehicle on, I pick my music genre and that is all I will listen too until I am parked. Changing my music would be distracting just like texting, so it doesn’t happen.

Just today, while driving to town I experienced a young woman texting and driving. The worst, she was also talking on the phone at the same time. Here she is, having a full out conversation via phone, while sending text messages to others. At first I didn’t realize she was doing both. I knew she was texting with how she was holding her phone, her head direction and the excessive swerving she was doing. At one instance she also almost ditched her car in a not so pleasant area. Now, when I see people like this, I want to call the cops but to do so I would also have to use my phone while driving. So there I would be, calling to report someone driving like an idiot because they can’t seem to just put their phone down, while driving. I am not risking my life to call the cops because someone else is being stupid.

When I took Young Drivers, I learned all about how lethal distracted driving is. I vowed I would never be one of those people. I know better. The whole point of getting my licence was to be able to take my kids places and also have some freedom myself. I waited 10 years to get my licence. Why would I risk my life participating in distracted driving when I know it could kill us? That would just be plain old stupid.

You Aren’t Only Going to Hurt Yourself

Did you know, you are more likely to kill someone else texting and driving then you are yourself? Whether it be one of your passengers or a bystander, you are more likely to kill someone else when texting and driving. You are risking other peoples lives to send off a useless text that yes, could of guaranteed waited until you were parked and not in your vehicle. That to me is heartless and idiotic. You could rip apart other people’s lives because you got to send LOL to Bobby Joe quick! Where is the logic in that? Are you willing to destroy someone else’s life for an LOL? I know I’m not.

Texting is an idiotic thing in the first place. It has destroyed the way the world associates with each other and made life even more impersonal. Sure, I’ll respond to a text message, usually saying “Call”. Hubby knows this all too well. He will send me a text, I will respond call. Obviously he wants to talk, so talk don’t type. He is known for texting and driving, as well as talking and driving. It drives me nuts. He knows it drives me nuts. Sadly, he’s willing to risk our happiness and future for a simple text. Hopefully he reads this post and gets the hint to put the damn phone down.

There is one thing I wish all vehicles had, a block for cell service. I feel all vehicles should prevent the use of mobile devices while the vehicle is out of park. This would not only decrease the number of deaths on our roads, but also put an epidemic at bay. The amount of people dying on our roads due to such a careless task is insane and I don’t want to be one of those statistics.

Of course, after I got this post in my head, I knew I had to write it. It so happens, while toying with this post idea in my head a video popped up on my Facebook stream that I feel you should watch. This is what could happen to you and the people that love you if you are careless, and text & drive.

And if you text and drive, sorry I think you are an idiot & thank you for putting all other peoples lives at risk, you are absolutely careless. Hope that LOL and C U Soon is worth killing someone or yourself.

Filed in: Parenting Tags: distracted driving • silent killer • texting and driving