Text-Messaging = Death
Did any of you hear about the horrific car accident on June 28 in Canandaigua, New York?
I heard about it in a news segment last week and couldn't believe my ears. A 17-year-old girl was driving her four friends to her parent's vacation home when her SUV, which had just passed a car, swerved back into oncoming traffic, hit a tractor-trailer and burst into flames.
What astounded me (I know....call me naive) was the fact that a succession of calls and text messages on her phone were cited as possible factors in the crash. Text-Messaging WHILE driving? Good Lord.....I see enough people....both adults and teens TALKING on a phone while driving. But typing?
The records indicated her phone was in use at the time of the accident, but of course they'll never be able to clearly state that she was the one doing the text messaging. But two minutes before the crash was reported, her phone was used to send a text greeting to a friend. He sent a reply less than a minute before the first 911 call.
So five girls....newly graduated from high school....all gone! Their lives snuffed out in a matter of seconds! And very possibly because she was sending a text message while driving.
While I felt very bad to hear this, my next thought was....WHAT if this girl was texting while driving and hit one of my family members? It could easily happen, if this is what kids are doing while they're supposed to be concentrating on DRIVING.
So I'm wondering.......should this be banned? Should cell phones be banned while driving? While the talking on the phone may be easy to see, thereby leading to an arrest, how would we be able to catch the teens that are texting?
I don't know about you....but this truly scares the heck out of me! To think, I could be driving along, focusing on my driving, doing the right thing and because some teen feels it's vitally important to reply to a text message while driving, "I" could be wiped off the face of the earth.
Terri DuLong
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Reader Comments (12)
Teenagers haven't the driving experience to multi-task while driving and neither do most adults.
Several cities have enacted laws against talking on your cell phone while driving. Frankly, I have a bluetooth headset so if necessary, I can talk and drive, I think it's worth the expense.
I think parents need to lay down some hard and fast rules for their children's driving.
When my son was in high school, I mentioned to one his friends' mother that I'd seen him speeding. She told me it was none of my business and her son wrecked her car a few weeks later. She made excuses for him.
Our mechanic told me that my son had peeled out of the station pretty fast one day. I took away his car keys and told him he wouldn't get them back until his dad and I were ready.
Tough love is the answer with driving teens. We had strict rules for driving our vehicles. We wanted our kids alive!
I hope they outlaw all of it, unless you are stopped by the side of the road...!
It is so terribly sad that 5 lives were wiped out by the possible texting on a cell phone. It gives one pause, for sure!
Still if it would (and I know it would) keep our roads safer then lets go for it.
As a mom of two teenagers, I can't tell you how often I pull up to the school to drop them off, and see other teens messaging or messing with their phones while driving out of the parking lot.
My heart goes out to the families of these girls. :(
Cell phone use while driving - voice, text, you name it - should be banned. Period. Maybe someday more of us will learn that driving is a privilege and not a right, and that paying attention to our driving and not the toys in our lap needs to be our first and only priority.
Sigh...
Michele says hi, BTW. She's not a fan of driving and texting either.