Waiting For Answers About the California Bus Crash

Yesterday a Fed Ex truck crossed over unto oncoming traffic and struck a bus. 10 people died.

We are all waiting to hear what happened.

I'm guessing, this is just a guess, excessive speed might have been a possibility but who knows.

It is a crash that has claimed headlines. Many crashes, scratch that, most don't.

But when a lot of people die in on crash they do tend to make the headlines. It has to do with our monkey origins. We tend to be more afraid when a lot of us die at once.

So despite the fact that around 100 Americans die every single day on our roads we will focus on yesterday's tragedy when 10 died.

It is tragic, it's just also tragic we accept the high amount of deaths.

I will be curious to see what they say is the reason to the crash.

I can only hope we will sooner, rather then later, begin to make drastic changes to end the high amount of fatalities. It's incredibly sad so many people had to die yesterday in a collision that possibly could have been prevented.

Drowsy Driving

Last night right before I went to bed I stumbled upon a young woman who lost her life in a car crash. Marina Keegan was a recent Yale graduate when she was a passenger in the car with her boyfriend and they were in a crash.

Marina just had a book of essays published, post-humous.

On the cover stands a beautiful, young woman and in the book are her young thoughts and hopes.

She had a job lined up at the New Yorker. She had been President of the Yale College Democrats. She had so much going for her, it is tragic.

As always though I wanted to know what happened.

According to the Daily News:

Her dreams ended on a Massachusetts road on Saturday when her boyfriend, Michael Gocksch, lost control of his Lexus. The ride slammed into a guardrail, shot across the roadway, hit the opposite guardrail and rolled over twice, police said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cape-car-crash-kills-yale-university-graduate-marina-keegan-article-1.1085418#ixzz2yUXVYVVR

I had to read a few articles. In one someone said her boyfriend "Lost control of the car." One of my least favorite statements.

As if cars were "out of control."

Finally, I just found what happened according to the Huffington Post:

State police said speed wasn't a factor and both were wearing seatbelts. Keegan's father has said Gocksch fell asleep at the wheel.

The reason this story is in the news now, despite her dying in 2012, is because her book was just published.

The headlines quickly skirt of her "tragic car accident."

It is National Distracted Driver Awareness Month, why not mention that car crashes are the #1 cause of death to young people and MOST crashes are avoidable.

I recently wrote about the handful of recent Harvard grads who had died in road crashes.

I can only hope that somewhere at one of these institutions filled with our young, promising people, is someone who is passionate about road safety.

This is from her last essay:

“We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.”

Driving drowsy is yet another form of distracted driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conservatively estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. This results in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses. These figures may be the tip of the iceberg, since currently it is difficult to attribute crashes to sleepiness.

For more drowsy driving statistics check click here.

CarPlay - Is This a Joke?

This weekend I heard about something called CarPlay.

Apple’s newly announced CarPlay, which is the rebranded version of iOS in the Car, a system for converting your vehicle’s in-car entertainment system into an iOS-powered dashboard fed content and brains by your phone, is a play that could massively expand the Apple mobile ecosystem – by turning cars into app-enabled iPhone accessories.

CarPlay essentially makes your iPhone available on the dashboard, of your car.

Hold me back.

First of all, the name CarPlay disgusts me and enrages me. Perpetuating the myth that our cars are a place of play, especially when driving, is dangerous and honestly, un-ethical.

Who has not heard officials say "texting and driving is not safe?"

Having all of these things available on your dashboard is horrifying.

If you click on Apple's definition you will be amazed at how they describe CarPlay:

CarPlay takes the things you want to do with your iPhone while driving and puts them right on your cars built-in display. You can get directions, make calls, send and receive message, and listen to music, all in a way that allows you to stay focused on the road. Just plug in your iPhone and go.

I'm kind of shaking as I type that.

What a joke.

Here is a message from Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx off of Distraction.Gov:

Texting and cell phone use behind the wheel significantly increases a driver's risk of crashing. Even a single, momentary distraction while driving can cause a lifetime of devastating consequences.

Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation has pushed for good laws, tough enforcement, and increased public awareness to help combat the deadly epidemic of distracted driving.

Mr. Foxx, how can something like CarPlay be legal?

What is going on that people believe that this can be OK to sell?

This is madness.

I implore you not to get this feature on your car and to ask why this is OK.

Seriously,  this is sick and wrong.

Paul Walker's Car Reportedly Going Upwards of 100 MPH

According to CNN the car that was carrying Paul Walker when he crashed and died was going upwards of 100 MPH. Excessive speed kills.

One only needs to drive on an LA freeway to know this.

Why people continue to do it, I don't know.

Keep it on the tracks. Not around children and innocent loved ones.

Hopefully his sad passing as well as his friend will resonate with some people who enjoy speeding.

The actor's body was badly burned "and in a pugilistic stance. His right wrist was fractured and his left arm was fractured," the report said. Rodas was also described as in "a pugilistic" -- or defensive -- position.

Walker suffered fractures of his left jawbone, collarbone, pelvis, ribs and spine, the report said.

Rodas "rapidly died of severe blunt head, neck and chest trauma," the report said.

Conversing With People About Car Crashes

More than 1,000 children and young adults are killed in car crashes. [youtube=http://youtu.be/3MKVtsLkGOc]

"She hit my daughter with her 5,000 pound SUV." That resonates.

Every day.

http://youtu.be/rr7TfwtO17I

Every single day.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VAsBc6cswl8]

And yet we are accepting this as OK. Bring up the conversation with your family over Thanksgiving. I'm curious to hear what they'd say. Do they blame car crashes on luck, fate, other bad drivers? Ask them if they speed. Do they text and drive? Do they think everyone on the road is a jerk?

I actually like most people. I'd say I like 99.9% of people I meet.

For as many poor judgements I see taken on the road I remind myself I would probably enjoying talking to the person behind the wheel.

Let's start talking about this.

And make it so that 1,000 children and young adults are not dying every day in car crashes.

The Way We Talk About Car Crashes

I just read about a terrible accident in Ohio which claimed the lives of three young girls. In the article I read it said that the truck los control and hit a tree.

I realize that when the article was published, perhaps, evidence was not conclusive and so facts were not known. But I think it is dangerous territory we wade into when we say things like, "the car lost control." A more recent report from the Huffington Post says that speeding from the young driver was involved.

I cringe when local newscasters talk about 3 car pileups that will soon be cleared. In fact, I appreciate 91.5 FM's for that fact that their morning on air personality Dennis Bartel will note that he hopes the people are OK who are in the accidents. He is the only news figure in LA I have heard regularly acknowledge that there are people inside the "piled up" cars that prove to inconvenience us so much.

Cars do not lose control.

We have lost control.

We are driving around powerful, heavy, dangerous modern inventions that we are killing each other with.

That is the way the car should be talked about right now.

I wonder  what the inventor of the car, Mr. Benz, would think if he knew how many people now die daily in cars?

Phone Calls You Don't Want To Get

The very nice woman who cleans my home just called me.Her husband was killed in a car crash in New Mexico yesterday. Their two beautiful, young girls are in shock as is the whole family. Another loss of life to a a car accident. Awful.

Honoring Conor Lynch: LA Run Tomorrow

Twitter and social networking really can be an amazing thing. I just happened upon an event that will take place tomorrow in honor of a young boy named Conor Lynch. Here is  a bit about Conor via the the website.

On October 19, 2010, while training with his high school cross country team, Conor Lynch was killed by a distracted, unlicensed, hit-and-run driver. He was 16 years old. The woman who killed him was 18 years old. Coincidentally, this tragedy occurred during National Teen Safe Driving Week.

Born August 19, 1994 in Los Angeles, Conor was the eldest son of Mark Lynch, partner of Cypress LLP in Los Angeles and Jeri Dye Lynch, CEO and President of Pinecrest Schools, a chain of private schools in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Conor attended Pinecrest Schools Van Nuys from 18 months to 8th grade, and was a junior at Notre Dame High School, Sherman Oaks at the time of his passing. He is remembered by teachers and classmates as an excellent student, team player and friend. In summers past he had been a camp counselor, lifeguard and swim instructor for Pinecrest Schools where the younger children fondly remember him as “Coach Conor”. He also worked at the Sherman Oaks Little League snack bar, which has been renamed in his honor. He enjoyed working with children who looked up to him as a role model and “big brother.”

You can read more about him on the Conor Lynch site.

The Conor Lynch Foundation was formed and here is its mission statement:  The Conor Lynch Foundation has been established to support new and existing programs that raise awareness and promote the safety of runners, pedestrians, cyclists and young drivers. Your contribution, and events such as safety fairs and the annual 5K Run/Walk “In Honor Of Conor” directly benefit this foundation, and work to ensure that no family suffers a loss like this again.

Here is the amazing, moving, PSA the Conor Lynch Foundation made. Show it to your kids. Or your friends, really we live in such a distracted world.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aghHS1lC4rw]

Well if you are swallowing back a lump in your throat like me this morning reading this and live close enough head on down to a run tomorrow in honor of Conor and this foundation. There will be a 5K run/walk in Sherman Oaks starting at 8:30. You can register here.

Fix The Toaster

****originally wrote this on August , 2010. Today I wore my dead friend's dress, all day, with the tags still attached.

This dress has hung in my closet for a little over two years.  Since the day I, being the first person to enter her apartment after she died, found the dress hanging in her closet.

I've always eyed it, tried it on and taken it off. It's a sexier little piece then I normally wear. She teased me that I needed to dress sexier, show off more skin. Today, I decided to wear it. The Old Navy tag that told me she paid $34 dollars for it hung in the back and I wore an open mens button down all day, unbottened over it to hide the tag.

$34.

She died when she was 33, two weeks before her 34th birthday which would have been on May 13th 2008.

In January of 2008 I began writing politicians and news people trying to sell them on the fact that I believe too many people were dying in car accidents. I always ended saying I was lucky not to know anyone who had died in an automobile accident. She used to get mad at me saying I invited trouble sometimes by talking or worrying about things.

She died at 6:18PM on May 1st, my husband's 40th birthday. I had put my son to bed at 6:00PM then thought of her and our last dinner out together in Silver Lake(where we would go to look at hot guys with long hair), she told me I should take time to do special things together with my husband.

I was angry at him and tired as we had both been vomiting all week with the stomach bug and he'd been miserable about turning 40 anyways. But I thought of what she said and I brought a cupcake up to him a little after 6PM.

From my window I can see the freeway she died on.

Every night I look out onto the 101 and wonder how could she possibly have gone fast enough to have hit the Jersey barrier, flipped and stopped facing traffic. The site they must have seen.

The windshield came out and went right into her forehead and the steering wheel impacted her chest. Hard.

So hard.

She was running late to a catering gig. She was beautiful. Sweet. The bravest, prettiest woman I've ever met. By far.

Every year around 40,000 people die in the USA alone in car accidents.

That's fucking stupid. If you want my opinion.

When she died the news headline said something like "Traffic snarled for miles due to traffic fatality." As if her death was nothing more then an annoyance to other commuters trying to get home that night.

If the toaster killed 40,000 people annually we would all step back, unplug it then say, "Let's Fix the Toaster."