Monday, October 5, 2009
The Next Generation of Distracted Drivers Is Learning from You. That’s Right, You.
Texting and talking on a handheld or a handsfree cell phone is as, or more, dangerous than driving drunk!
Here’s a thought for all you moms and dads who still defend your habit of driving while talking on your cell phones or texting, despite the ever- growing body of evidence that PROVES you are driving while impaired. (No matter your self-proclaimed and non-existent superior, multi-tasking abilities.)
Your babies, toddlers, children and teens are watching your every move. And as every parent knows, there’s no adage more true than “Monkey see, monkey do.”
Let’s fast forward.
One day in the not- too-distant future your darling 3’6″ seven-year old superhero will be your darling seventeen-year old, testosterone-fueled, completely invincible (at least to himself) 6’3″ superhero with a brand new driver’s license. Your golden boy or girl will be behind the wheel of a several- thousand-pound vehicle with cell phone or PED in hand… or NOT.
If nothing else can persuade you to put down that phone or PED and to lead your kids by your BEST example, the thought of your eventually-adolescent, hypocrisy-sniffing offspring doing exactly what you are doing today should chill your blood.
It does mine.
According to the United States Department of Transportation statistics, simply talking on the phone (handheld or NOT ) while driving is like driving legally drunk with a blood alcohol of .08.
Texting and driving makes you 23 times more likely to be in an accident that day.
Do you want your kids to drive with those odds?
Then don’t do it yourself.
Repeat after me:
I will not drink and drive.
I will not text and drive.
I will not phone and drive.
working writing woman 