Long time no text

I needed to cool down.  The last few posts were either really soap-boxy or just ridiculous.  I needed to wait a bit before I committed to something new.  Thank goodness for the Holidays!  As anyone who knows me, this year has been a trying one, right out of the gate.  Why?  The long and the short of it is because of texting while driving.

My family is the statistic used to scare teenagers into compliance.  If you're reading this, then I'm the guy you know whose family was upended by a truck driver who was texting while driving seconds before he plowed into my wife's car.  And, while, ultimately, the outcome has our lives back not-necessarily-to-normal, it was a completely avoidable accident if everyone who was operating a vehicle was doing what they should have.

This is what the FCC says about it:

• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in 2012 driver distraction was the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes – with 3,328 people killed – and crashes resulting in an injury – with 421,000 people wounded.
• Forty percent of all American teens say they have been in a car when the driver used a cell phone in a way that put people in danger, according to a Pew survey.
• The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted.
• Eleven percent of drivers aged 18 to 20 who were involved in an automobile accident and survived admitted they were sending or receiving texts when they crashed 

We're now a statistic.  And, while this is just as stupid as putting on eye-liner on the Parkway, or drinking coffee in one hand, while holding a breakfast sandwich and shifting with the other, we accept it.  On your drive home from work or school, count the number of cars where someone's playing with their phone.

What's sick is that we have the technology to combat the numbers.  Bluetooth speakerphone/ear pieces exist to help, as does Siri, Cortana and Google voice activated operating systems.  You don't need your hands anymore.  And, more importantly, nothing is that important. 

So, please, remind yourself, when the text comes in while you're driving, ignore it.  Turn off the reminder.  If it's that important, they'll call.  If they don't call, then it wasn't that important.  It's nearly resolution season, and I ask that all of you, regardless of the circumstance, make it your business to be more responsible while you're driving.  If not for the drivers around you, then do it for my family.

Thanks, and have a happy and healthy holiday season.