Help stop distracted driving - Our story

One of the riskiest activities we voluntarily participate in each day is driving a car.  This is our personal story of how teen distracted driving disrupted our lives on two separate occasions this summer.  Spoiler alert, we were lucky.

**Credit to the Post image belongs to AAA research. Measuring Cognitive Distraction in the Automobile”, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, June 2013.  

Yesterday, for the second time in two months, my wife and I were in a car accident with a distracted driver. The force of the impact knocked my wife’s glasses off and left us both cursing at the misfortune. The car held up remarkably well but is still in need of repairs… thank you Toyota!  Our bumper and rear hatch will need to be replaced again after being fixed last month. Sorry insurance company, but it wasn’t our fault, again!   

Both drivers were teenagers distracted by their cell phones and rear-ended us at a stoplight. Thankfully, no one was hurt in either accident. It is terribly inconvenient for us and a tough lesson to learn for teens starting to drive!    

When we got out of the car to check on the other driver, our anger turned to empathy as we noticed how emotional this was for the teens involved. Both teens were emotionally shaken up in each accident; one having a front end totaled on her first car and the other with an air bag deployment.    

1)  Legislation can’t stop this
There are laws in 46 states that ban hand held cell phone use while driving. This hasn’t stopped drivers of all ages from using hand held devices to talk on the phone or reading and sending text messages while driving.   

2) Technology can’t stop this
Technology has tried to stop the use of cell phones by detecting motion and preventing activity with a pop up message to the user. If the user is a passenger or a dishonest driver, the technology falls short of the intended goal of preventing interactions with a cellular device.    

3)  We can do something about it!
Please help spread the work to this community and your family and friends to put the phone down and drive. Don’t text and drive!  Please don’t wait until someone you love gets seriously hurt.   Let's use the power of social media to make a difference! Please Upvote this post if you can pledge to help spread the word on the dangers of distracted driving.  Stay tuned for future posts on this topic. 

If you live in the US, get involved with a Teen Safe Driving Coalition in your state. There are only 11 states that currently have a program to teach teens the culture of safe driving based on the proven principles of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL). Get involved or learn how to start one.   

I’ve started a new hashtag category on Steemit called safe-driving for you to add your stories and help spread the word!      #safe-driving #life #research #understanding-society #social-media