ray la hood
A Fix The Toaster reader was in Chicago over the week and she emailed me this photo of signs she saw in the suburb of Lake Forest.
Thanks for the pictures!
Even though hands free is dangerous at least they are putting up signs to encourage not touching their phones.
I do NOT text and drive.
I rarely ever talk on my phone while driving.
BUT that is going to change because that is not good enough.
I will not be talking on my phone at all anymore while driving. Here is the even bigger step for me. I am going to ask my loved ones to please NOT call me while they are driving.
Now that is a tricky one.
My mom works long hours often we talk while she commutes home on her 45 minute drive, in a crappy tin car on a crowded California freeway.
Sometimes I call my husband, just to check in, even though I know he's on a freeway with my child and it makes me feel nervous knowing he'll have to answer it. I will ask him not to anymore.
I am going to send an email out to my friends telling that I will be doing this in the name of Fix The Toaster and to take it a step further honoring Distracted Driving awareness month.
They will roll their eyes and laugh at me.
But then I will tell them:
**The average text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds, so a texting driver is 23 times more likely to crash then a non-texting driver.
**Talking on your phone while driving is as dangerous as drunk driving. (Watch the MythBuster Confirm it) That should be enough right there!!!!!
**They will argue and say, well I use hands free, I will say: Hands free has been proven to be just as dangerous.
Today I did not talk on my phone at all. I drove nearly an hour to meet up with a friend for a hike.
I listened to music, I fidgeted but I know it's the right thing to do.
I hope you too can make this change.
I get it, I really do.
There is a lot of emphasis in LA on getting around traffic jams. A lot of which are caused by car crashes. You hear it on the radio and see it on the TV.
Just this AM I saw this report about "a serious crash....you can get around it...."
Nothing was said about driving safe or hoping that person was OK.
We need more media on driving safe not avoiding the crash.
Somewhere in LA a body, carrying a soul is badly damaged, perhaps dead.
Drive safely.
****they just came back on and said "the bad news was" and commented on more traffic. Humanity, where you at?
Wow. I just stumbled upon this video about texting and driving. I had to pause it at 1:00 as I truly feel like I might pass out. It is graphic.
But I applaud this video.
We are killing ourselves and other people, grandparents, moms, dads, hot single young women and men, babies. Over our greedy desire to text.
Warning this video is very, very graphic.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQB5Bl_2GKI]
My husband and friend will often tease me, "Oh no. Fix The Toaster" is at it again. I joke that I'll look like a real ass if I die in a car accident.
Joking aside, chances are pretty high I might die in a car accident.
Sorry to be a Debby Downer, but so are yours.
Your odds of dying in a motor vehicle accident are 1 in 83, that's over your lifetime (if that's of comfort)
Your odds of dying while flying are 1 in 5,000, to offer some comparison.
Anyways, I know car accidents will always happen, I get it. I drive safely or rather I try my best. But those odds need to change.
Yesterday, after taking my two kids who are 17 months apart out and having them cry off and on for the entire outing I finally got them both in the car and was happy to get out of the garage.
I was at a light when my 2 1/2 year-old said, "Mom, I'm not buckled in!"
I threw the car into park, got out and buckled him in, not before kissing him and telling him thank you for telling me. I make mistakes.
I have accidents. (not car related, knock on wood)
I try very hard to drive defensively and I hope that I never cause a car accident.
But things happen, this I get. My point here is that:
1. Accidents happen but most that are happening are preventable.
2. I'm not saying that I'm impervious to car accidents or a fantastic driver.
I know that my heightened awareness for this topic is partly driven by the beautiful souls that are covered in fragile bones and flesh, that I drive around daily. What Lori Coble has had to go through blows my mind. She lost all three of her children in a car accident.
Remembering-Kyle-Emma-and-Katie-Coble-Video
Even though car accidents will always happen so much can and should be done right now to change this.
Infrastructure should be looked at, merging when given only a few hundred feet is absurd and dangerous.
Speed should be reconsidered.
Driving distracted heavily examined.
Driving thoughtfully. As our contributor Scott Marshall said, driving is a team sport, I love that thought.
When I first started driving my Lexus about 5 years ago it came with a back up camera. At first I thought it felt very strange and unsafe to me. I didn't trust it.
Cut to today, driving my minivan (gag, I know but so much easier with 3 kids) it is a Toyota Sienna and it too has a back up camera. Now when I get into my husbands car, which does not have a back up camera, I feel like I am backing up blindly. Literally, I can not see and neither can you. People under a certain height have no chance of being seen. At a certain point you really are just backing up hoping a child is not walking behind you.
Fixt The Toaster contributor Scott Marshall has written more about the dangers of it here.
Did you know that there is a federal mandate that was supposed to go into effect for all new 2014 cars to all have back up cameras?
This has been delayed (shocker) over a the camera having a 1 second delay versus is a 3 second delay once the car is started up. The DOT has estimated the backup camera could prevent about 18,000 injuries and save 300 lives a year.
This was all talked about 5 flipping years ago.
According to an article from USATODAY
The Feds reportedly have insisted on one second; automakers have argued for three seconds, because if the car has just been started, the more complex dash systems with navi, etc., take a moment to "boot up." But the feds say that leaves too much time for the car to move rearward before the image appears.
So 300 more people, normally elderly and kids likely died this year due to this delay. Here is the letter from the Secretary of Transportation Ray La Hood and another article on the delay.
What should we do to? I'm not sure, but here is a link to contact the DOT. Let's hope Ray La Hood get's this going in January. Come to think of it, this guy has a huge task on his hand. I mean, really he is the head of transportation. He's got one hell of a big crisis on his hands if you ask me.
