OT, PSA: Please don't text and drive

[Armymutt25A]

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I lost a good friend and dive buddy today. He was riding his bike back from lunch when a woman ran a stop sign on Ft. Benning because she was busy texting. He was wearing a helmet as well as the high visibility equipment required by the Army. I don't know of any text in the world that is worth killing someone over.

 

[Coquette22]

🙁 So very sorry, ArmyMutt. Texting/talking while driving is something I don't understand. I know so many people who wouldn't dare drink and drive, but texting is just fine with them for some reason. We had an accident here a few months ago where a woman was texting while coming out of a parking space. She was distracted, hit the accelerator instead of the brake and backed over the sidewalk into a store window and hit a pedestrian on the sidewalk, who ended up in critical condition.

 

[light10]

I'm so sorry ArmyMutt 🙁. My fiancee was in a very similar accident on his bike, fortunately low speed/angle of impact/fairy godmothers allowed him to walk away with nothing but some bumps, scrapes and a pretzeled bike.

So, I'll double your 'don't text and drive' sentiment and add a dash of 'pay attention to bikers and pedestrians'.

And, again, I'm really really sorry about your friend.

 

[StartingoverVet]

Losing a friend like that just s*cks. I have seen a lot of close calls around here with texters. Students who seem to forget about the existence of cars don't help either.

Most people just don't realize how truly dangerous the practice is.

Local driving is done at around 50 ft/second. A lot can change in 50 feet!

 

[Savethewhales]

wow. i'm very sorry to hear about your friend. there's really no excuse for preventable tragedies like this one 🙁

 

[LMMS]

My deepest sympathies to you, your diving team, and your friend's family and other friends. To say how senseless the whole thing is doesn't even come close to adequately expressing what is needed given the circumstances. I'm so very very sorry... 🙁

People, PLEASE: Both eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel!!

 

[phaedraeos]

I am so, so sorry . . . As a cyclist in a state where texting and driving just became illegal at the beginning of this year, I've also seen my fair share of accidents and close calls. I'll do the best I can for you and your friend's memory by sharing his story with all my friends and colleagues, cyclists and drivers alike.

You're right. It's a simple sentence that escapes so many people: No message is worth killing someone over.

 

[Psorophoraferox]

I'm so sorry for your loss. 🙁

I never text and drive, but I far too frequently try to pull up Google Maps on my phone and look at directions/check traffic while I'm driving. IMO that's just as distracting, and it doesn't add more than a couple of minutes onto my commute to just pull over to check that stuff, so there's no need to take the risk. Thank you for the reminder.

 

[Lissarae06]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[clairbear]

I'm so sorry🙁

 

[BlacKAT33]

sorry armymutt 🙁

I also believe the advice on this thread should be used by pedestrians. Not that they can kill someone, but they are putting themselves in danger. Here in philly there are a ton of pedestrians who cross streets when the light hasn't changed, walk straight into the road before looking to see if a car is accidentally going to go without yielding, and they bury their head in their text messages and smart phones all the time.

 

[DVMDream]

I'm sorry armymutt, that is awful.

I am also against texting and driving. I have people all the time ask me why it took me so long to respond to their text and I always tell them that it is not worth getting in an accident, killing someone, or killing myself just to respond.

 

[kpxfiles]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

I saw a sign today in Los Angeles, CA that said that the ticket would be $159 for texting in driving. They are cracking down. I really hope more people will be aware that any distraction, can be a life changing distraction.

 

[turquoisewolves]

Thoughts and prayers are with you armymutt for your loss

 

[Savethewhales]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

I saw a sign today in Los Angeles, CA that said that the ticket would be $159 for texting in driving. They are cracking down. I really hope more people will be aware that any distraction, can be a life changing distraction.

i personaly wish they would make the fine like $600 because unfortunately a lot of the people texting in LA aren't deterred by the threat of $159 fine. :/ Something more needs to be done though I don't have the faintest clue what will get people to stop. These stories are becoming way too common 🙁

 

[StartingoverVet]

i personaly wish they would make the fine like $600 because unfortunately a lot of the people texting in LA aren't deterred by the threat of $159 fine. :/ Something more needs to be done though I don't have the faintest clue what will get people to stop. These stories are becoming way too common 🙁

I didn't know of anyone actually getting a ticket for that.

When they first passed the law there was a temporary decline in use, but it bounced back up and was as rampant as ever when I left (all based on my infallible sampling of the driving population).

 

[Savethewhales]

I didn't know of anyone actually getting a ticket for that.

When they first passed the law there was a temporary decline in use, but it bounced back up and was as rampant as ever when I left (all based on my infallible sampling of the driving population).

Yeah me either. Thats sort of exactly what I'm talking about. Low fine + no one getting tickets is not much of a deterrent. It seems like people don't get caught unless something happens and that's really sad. Every single time I am driving somewhere, I see someone texting in the car.

 

[BlacKAT33]

One of my cousins posted this on her facebook status today :
"Okay you caught me car to my left i'm texting while driving, better yet i'm facebookin-i know i know pretty talented- be jealous-creeper lol"


I bet that "creeper" was giving her the evil eye for texting while driving

 

[Armymutt25A]

To add to the whole thing, the woman was driving on a military installation with an expired license. A word of warning, if you are at fault in seriously injuring a soldier, the Army will recoup its monetary losses from your insurance company, followed by you. This one is not going to be very popular with her husband when he finds out he's on the hook for $189K. I think he's an officer, which means with the gross negligence of not making his wife renew her license, makes him responsible for the entire amount, and there is no getting out of it.

 

[gracietiger]

So sorry to hear this story. My blood boils when I see a car ahead of me, swerving or slowing down and then suddenly speeding up, and why I go to pass the car, I see the person, head down in lap, texting. So not worth it!

I have to say, since I've moved back to the East Coast, I have seen WAY more texting while driving than I did in CA. Not that it's not an issue in CA, but I do believe I see it so much more out here. Hopefully more states follow suit with laws against texting and driving.

 

[bbeventer]

To add to the whole thing, the woman was driving on a military installation with an expired license. A word of warning, if you are at fault in seriously injuring a soldier, the Army will recoup its monetary losses from your insurance company, followed by you. This one is not going to be very popular with her husband when he finds out he's on the hook for $189K. I think he's an officer, which means with the gross negligence of not making his wife renew her license, makes him responsible for the entire amount, and there is no getting out of it.

Not to mention cell phone usage is prohibited while driving on military bases.

I am so sorry for your loss armymutt, this really is a terrible way to have to loose a friend. 🙁

 

[Cautionary Tail]

So sorry to hear about your friend, armymutt. 🙁

It's against the law to text while driving here, but whatever the penalty is, it clearly isn't deterring anyone because I see people doing it all the time. In fact, when I took Stats last semester, this was one of the things we were surveyed about. Over two thirds of the class admitted to regularly texting while driving. As in multiple times on a daily basis. Almost everyone reported doing it to some extent. It's a major factor in fatal accidents involving teenage drivers around here. (I'm in the northeast.) My car was nailed in the school parking lot by some chick that was backing out while texting last year, and I've almost been hit by other students more times than I can count. Last December, someone came close to hitting me (on the sidewalk) when they lost control of their SUV driving- on icy roads in the middle of a blizzard- while messing with their smartphone. A few months ago, a friend and I reported someone who was both obviously drunk and texting. He was swerving into people's front yards and didn't seem to notice. I don't know why they aren't doing a better job of cracking down on this. If it's totally obvious to me what they're doing in there, surely the police must be seeing it too?

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm older, but this is one of those things I really don't get. As others have said, no text message is worth dying over. Or potentially taking another's life. Senseless doesn't even begin to describe it. 🙁

 

[that redhead]

A lot of my family are avid cyclists and do long events. My uncle down in Georgia turned up at a hospital after being struck by a car on a remote backroad - the driver just LEFT HIM. It was fortunate that someone drove by and noticed him - he spent a while in the hospital and still doesn't remember what happened.

Distracted driving in any sense - texting, talking, changing radio stations etc - is just no good. I know so many of us are guilty of it, too. I'm so sorry about your friend, Armymutt.