Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Distracted Driving Blitz.

Lets face it,it had to come to a head sooner or later. We see it everywhere and probably even done it too. I know I have. You pull up to an intersection behind someone and it takes them a bit to figure out the light turned green. You hit the horn and you see the head pop up and then the car starts rolling. As you're driving past you see the person staring more at their phone then they are at the road. And you probably think to yourself  "Get off the damn phone". In the meant time your phone goes off and you think nothing of checking it. I've even done it myself recently. My better half,who just happens to be a peace officer said "It can wait" from the passenger side of the truck. And you know what? It really wasn't that important that I answer it anyways.

  There are far too many people behind the wheel that think they can do what ever they want without thinkin g about what problems it can cause other drivers or pedestrians. Seeing people put make up on or reading while they drive really brings this to mind. If your travelling at 60 mph (about 100 kph) then you are travelling 88 feet per second. It takes a third of a second to react to a stimulus. In that third of a second you've travelled almost 30 feet before you even touch the brakes. Then you have lag time,which is the time it takes for the brakes to fully apply. This is more than enough time to run into something or someone before you even know it. You may have gotten away with driving with these habits for years but,truth is the odds are going to catch up to you and when they do,they'll more than make up for the time you got away with it. So why even take the chance? Its gotten to the point that over 75% of accidents involve distracted driving. Why do you think the first thing an officer wants to see at the scene of an accident is the cell phones? They want to know if it was a distraction. And no two ways about it,there's NO JUSTIFICATION for it! Never mind that insurance is always going up and it sucks driving by and seeing people hurt. The cost of accidents on a family is not only measured monitarily.

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