Gary Barg, Editor-in-Chief
Is the text you are about to send worth your life? Is the funny cat or dog video that you cannot wait to share with your friends? These are the questions you need to ask every time you reach for your phone while driving to text a note, FaceTime, or even gather followers for your TikTok account. Is any of this worth your life or someone else’s life.
That is what I fervently wished the young lady who was driving behind someone very important to me exactly thirteen years ago tomorrow on a dark highway in rural Minnesota when she plowed into the back of the car driven by a very much beloved 32-year-old Sara Kaufman.
If only the driver behind Sara that dark evening had been paying attention to the road and not her cell phone, I am positive the world would have been a better place with Sara’s bright light continuing to shine. She was on the way to doing some amazing things.
This message against distracted driving is especially important to family caregivers, as we race from crisis to crisis during these challenging times. It is all too easy to take just a moment to make or respond to a text, but just a moment is all it takes to destroy lives. I feel as I have become a bit of a curmudgeonly advocate against distracted driving, as I do know the pull of the cell phone while driving all too well. In fact, I try and make sure my phone is on the passenger seat or in the glove box just to remind me of the danger of that one short text.
Distracted driving claims 9 lives every day — approximately 3,500 per year (CDC). ... NHTSA data states more than 1,000 people are injured daily in accidents in which at least one driver was distracted. In 2019, distracted driving was a reported factor in 8.5% of fatal motor vehicle crashes.
Some states are stepping up to help curb distracted driving as Florida has done by making texting while driving a violation which will add points to your license. This is a great start. But more needs to be done, tell your loved ones and friends that no matter how important the cute cat video, emoji or even reminder note you just must send that very instant, trust me, as well as Sara’s family and her other loved ones…
It’s not worth the lives it may cost and the life-long pain it inflicts on friends and loved ones. Possibly even yours or your loved ones. RIP Sara, you are always in our hearts.
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