When will we learn?

This morning on my way to work I saw a woman driving down the road putting on her make-up. I'm not taking about applying a little chap-stick at a stop light, she was full-on rubbing on her foundation and driving at the same time. Several weeks ago I saw a lady putting on mascara while she was driving and I can't even begin to name all the people I see texting and driving every single day. To me texting, putting on make-up, drinking or doing any other number of stupid things and driving is like smoking. There is so much data showing how bad it is for you, yet people still do it! Every time John texts while I am in the car with him I tell him texting and driving is worse than driving drunk but he never believes me. He would never drink and then drive and would kill me if I even thought about it but doesn't think twice about sending a few texts. They have done studies!! At the University of Utah they took volunteer students got them drunk and had them drive through a simulated street, then they did the same thing with sober people that were texting. Those texting had more accidents, slower response times and worse driving skills overall.

On facebook this morning I posted about the woman driving and said I hoped she crashed. I didn't have room to say, "I hope she crashed but not into someone else and not bad enough that she was badly injured but just bad enough to learn her lesson." Many of you may think this makes me a horrible person to wish ill on someone else but I have no sympathy for people who knowingly do stupid things. 

When are we going to figure out that distracted driving kills people?!! 

My little sister, Morgan, was in a car accident last week. She rear-ended a truck, she was fine but her car was not. When we were at my mom's house this past weekend I asked her (out of ear shot of Mom and Dad of course) "Morge, be honest were you texting when you crashed?" This was the conversation that ensued. 

"No, I wasn't, I don't text and drive." 

"Since when?" 

"Since when do you think I text and drive?" 

"I have seen you do it when I was in the car with you!!" 

"I don't text and drive, not since two 19 year-old boys from Rich got killed texting and driving." 

I was quite for a moment and then responded. 

"I am sorry it took those boys dying for you to learn your lesson but I am glad you did." 

Again that may sound selfish but its true. I truly am sad that someone else's family members died but I am grateful that it wasn't my sister and that she has hopefully learned how dangerous distracted driving really can be. 

I will admit I have texted while driving in the past, I would be lying if I said I didn't, but I don't do it anymore. If I am talking on the phone and traffic or weather gets to bad for me to talk and drive I hang up. 

The thing that baffles me most about people doing all these things is it is not just you the decision is impacting. More often than not those injured or killed in drunk driving accidents are the ones that weren't drinking, the innocent bystanders. By making the choice to drive distracted you are choosing to not only play Russian roulette with your own life but with the lives of everyone else on the road with you, which to me is just plain unacceptable.