No text or email is important enough that you need to send or answer a message while you are driving. If you do this, you are an idiot. However, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics, 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 more injured in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2011. Officials estimate that at any given daylight moment, 660,000 drivers are using their phones or other devices while driving.
The above video tells four heart-breaking stories of Americans who had their entire lives changed, or in some cases ended, by being involved in texting-while-driving accidents. Esteemed documentarian Werner Herzog directed the 35-minute documentary on texting-and-driving accident victims.
The first segment tells of Xzavier, a young boy paralyzed from the diaphragm down after a distracted driver ran through a stop sign and struck him along the side of the road. His sister tells of how quickly her brother was struck by a distracted driver: “I had my brother in my hand, and all of a sudden, my hand was empty.”
The other segments in the video tell the tale of a young man who struck an Amish buggie, killing its three passengers; of a woman who was permanently disabled after being struck by a text-distracted teenager; and of a young man who sideswiped a car, who then spun into an oncoming truck, killing two passengers in the collision.
Herzog told the Associated Press that AT&T proposed the documentary; the company was expected to distribute the film to 40,000 high schools as part of the It Can Wait project website, which includes pledges not to text and drive.
The film was also sponsored by Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint.
“I knew I could do it because it has to do with catastrophic events invading a family,” Herzog told the AP. “In one second, entire lives are either wiped out or changed forever. That kind of emotional resonance is something that I knew I could cover.”
He added, “There’s a completely new culture out there. I’m not a participant of texting and driving — or texting at all — but I see there’s something going on in civilization which is coming with great vehemence at us.”
Don’t text and drive, nothing is important enough that it is worth the life of yourself, or another person. Don’t be an idiot. It can wait.
(Thanks to our friends at Beanco Technology for this link.)
