Life is about inches and seconds, Norman Bragg told his audience. A few seconds or a few inches different and this gathering wouldn't have happened, he said.
Mr. Bragg was speaking at the funeral for his 16-year-old daughter, who passed away in a car accident caused by her texting on a friend's cell phone while driving. With her eyes on the phone, the daughter drifted onto the gravel shoulder of the road. When she heard the gravel kick up, she yanked the steering wheel back so hard that the car flipped over several times. A friend in the car survived but suffered severe injuries.
According to statistics provided by the University of Alabama's Center for Advanced Public Safety, 132 people died and more than 4,300 were injured in distracted-driving crashes in Alabama in 2010. That amounts to more than 10 percent of all roadway accidents in the state.
Distracted driving includes any activity that diverts a driver's attention from the task at hand: safe driving. Examples include changing radio stations, talking to passengers, chatting on the phone and texting.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says texting is perhaps the worst form of distracted driving because it involves the three main elements that make distracted driving so unsafe:
- Taking your hands off the wheel
- Taking your eyes off the road
- Taking your mind off of driving
Perhaps not surprisingly, teen drivers account for the majority of car accidents involving texting, according to the NHTSA. A survey by the Pew Research Center found that one in four teens who own cell phones admitted to texting while driving.
Several coastal Alabama cities have banned texting while driving. The state legislature also has considered a ban several times, but the proposals have died in committees before reaching a full vote. Hopefully drivers and the legislature will realize the true danger of texting while driving before another tragic accident occurs.
Source: Distracted driving leads to thousands of car crashes in Alabama yearly
