Is Your Cell Phone In The Driver’s Seat, Or Are You?

On?April 4, 2013,?a Midwest city police?sergeant from?Midwest city, Oklahoma??stopped?a vehicle to?issue a? seatbelt violation. When he started to walk away from the vehicle he was almost?hit by a 35 year old woman looking down?to?text on her cell phone. Sergeant Brad Rummell was able to scramble out of the way unharmed?before being hit, but?then the?woman proceeded head on into his police cruiser .

Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes was quoted as saying, ?He saw her on her phone that’s how he knew she wasn’t going to stop.?? Then Clabes said, ?By the grace of God, we’re lucky we didn’t lose an officer that day.”

Another incident of texting and driving?took place on March 15, 2014.??Jay Hufford’s world crashed when he lost both his mother, Sharon, and his?wife, Sue. Hufford was driving to a birthday party for Sue, his wife, when Nicholas Tognozzi slammed into the back of their Toyota Camry and killed? both Hufford’s wife and mother. Tognozzi was driving a pickup truck at 60mph when he decided to?use his cell phone. Tognozzi admitted to police he was?using his phone during the time of the crash.

Five seconds is all it takes for your world to come crashing down?due to texting and?driving.

Statistics from Prevent Distracted Driving Association (PDDA) show that people take their eyes off the road for an average of five seconds when texting or dialing a number on their cell. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that even hands free driving can be dangerous. The university research team claims that 37% of your mental function is used even when talking with a hands free device, this can’take a substantial amount of focus off the road.

The Fatality Analysis and Reporting System of the NHTSA shows that in 2009 there were 5,474 fatalities in the U.S. and around 448,000 vehicle crash-related injuries were caused by distracted driving. Statistics also show that most people involved in accidents caused by distracted driving belong in the below 20 age group.

There are several devices and apps?to prevent texting and driving. ?One of these is an app called safe cell created by android, it can also be used on I phones. When a vehicle exceeds over 5mph the app prevents one from texting, dialing, and emailing others. The android app is only 11.99, a small price to pay to?save your life?or someone else’s. A wireless device called Key2safedriving also disables all functioning of cell phones while driving.

The final step is to take a pledge not to use your cell phone while driving, you can do this at http://pdda.org/pledge/

Edited/Published by: SB