NHTSA Releases Gruesome Anti-Texting & Driving PSA

There is a gruesome new video, yeah! That is trying to dissuade people from texting and driving. Because they aren't listening apparently.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a disturbing new 30-second video aimed to inspire drivers to keep their phones in their pockets while behind the wheel.

Someone actually tweeted a few days ago that she would never agree behind scaring people but I had to politely disagree.

People are not listening.

Here is the video.

http://youtu.be/S_-6EoNhitg

Fix The Toaster Contributor David Little

This is a story told by Fix The Toaster contributor David Little. He emailed me what happened. This "story" just happened to him last month. David survived a horrible car crash a few years back that fortunately did not kill his children, all three of them, his wife or himself. He was hit by a person texting. You should read his story here.

I appreciate his self-awareness here.

David and I share a concern for the safety of our families while we are on the road because we know the statistics. With David's permission, here is his email.

I just returned from NYC.  I was a chaperone on a middle school choir trip.  We took 3 busses full of 7th and 8th grade graders...20 hours...slept on the bus.  It was a real adventure.  We packed about 7 days of activities into 2 1/2 days.

We boarded the busses at Battery Park at 4:00 PM to head home.

Before we left, my one principal concern was that I wanted a seat up front.  I have always been a bit of a control freak when it came to road travel and even more so since our crash.  I joked  that the reason I wanted to be up front is because I want to see the crash when it happened. A bit of truth I guess, because I didn't see our crash happen since it was at night.

We picked up our overnight bus crew in Allentown, PA, and drove into the teeth of Winter Storm Wiley.  Nothing major really, by snow storm standards, but driving through 6 to 12 inches of snow was a real adventure.  Our bus drivers did great.  We travelled a 200 mile stretch of I-81 at about 30mph...Naturally, it was hard to relax, so I popped a 5 Hour Energy drink and stayed up and visited with our driver while he drove.  I just felt bad for the guy...driving in that snow while everyone slept.

 I didn't change into my comfy clothes because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, and also wanted to be prepared just in case something happened.  If we got stranded, or slid off the road, I didn't want to be standing there in Crocs and sweatpants.

Well, we made it through the snow, and arrived at our next stop, just north of Knoxville about 3 hours late.  We switched bus crews, got some breakfast, brushed our teeth and hit the road for the final stretch home.  From Knoxville, we had about 3 hours to Huntsville.

We were the 3rd bus, in a 3 bus convoy.  We had been on the road for about 15 minutes, when a car headed north on I-75, for reasons unknown, crossed the median and hit a large freight truck hauling slabs of granite. The car hit at the rear of the truck, at the wheels on the left side. The truck flipped on its side, throwing granite everywhere and slid down the interstate. The car that crossed the median spun after hitting the truck and was was then rear ended by a minivan.

All of this is happening in front of us travelling at about 70MPH...our Hero bus driver Bill (retired Coast Guard, long haul trucker. 77 y/o) hit the brakes but did not panic...we narrowly missed another car that was stopping in front of us. Bill steered us into the median under control, and brought us to a safe stop.

I got out and ran towards the first car and dialed 911, certain the driver would be dead or nearly dead and was shocked to see a lady crawl out of the passenger side of the car, dazed and but on two feet. The van was full of a family of small kids and they too walked away.

We had a nurse and a former EMT on our bus and they began rendering aid to the lady in the first car.

I turned and began running up to the truck, expecting the worst and again was shocked to see the driver crawl out of the cab, unscathed.  By the time I got to him he had lit a cigarette.

This wreck should have killed someone. I am still shocked that everyone walked away.

The second bus in our convoy was beside the granite truck as it flipped. It swiped the bus, shattering a window. The seat was vacant...and had just been occupied. By a girl named Faith.

When everything was finally settled down, I pretty much fell to pieces. Memories of our crash came flooding back.  It was intense.  I still don't feel back to normal.  That type of trip alone is enough to throw you out of whack, and add to that the violent wreck...well, it's hard.

We tried to piece together what happened. From a few firemen, it sounded like something happened in her lanes of traffic, a blown tire from an 18 wheeler perhaps or someone cut her off.  The strange thing is that her tracks through the median are as straight as an arrow.  I would have expected them to be sideways.

My Big Driving Mistake Yesterday & Some Random Thoughts

Yesterday after parking in my driveway, so proud that I'd had a successful trip to Target with my three kids and my 4 year-old said, Mom, you forgot to seatbelt me in. Imagine my horror.

I had just driven on the highway.

I know I need to slow down.

I'm getting sleep that moms with newborns get due to sick kids for weeks on end. At least I'm not reaching for my phone while driving as well. I share this with you to let you know that I am trying my best but I have to remind myself to slow down and pay even more attention.

A few interesting things. I just spoke to a woman at my pilates class who commutes to Santa Monica from the East Side. She doesn't use her phone due to it being dangerous. I applaud her for that. Her son, whom is 17, doesn't drive. He has no desire.

This is something I've heard before from the younger generation.

Cars no longer represent freedom like they did for us.

Lastly, thank you to Susan Sheu for, once again, sharing an interesting article with me.

This time via the New York Times and the title is "Does Texting at a Stop Sign Count?"

My answer is of course, yes! Yes, it counts and NO you should not do it.

(Graphic via The New York Times)

I can't tell you how often I see people doing it and then the light changes and they continue doing it. Plus it's got to take your brain a few seconds to re-configure itself.

Think about the carpool pick up line!!!

All of the parents on their phones. All of those short people we love and yet not giving them are 100%.

We can do better.

Universal Sign To Signal To Others to Put The Phone Down

This morning on Facebook a friend posted, "We need a universal sign to others to put their phone down while driving."

I agree.

Sometimes I just say under my breath, put your phone down f$%^ face. Obviously not effective.

Sometimes I will honk but I don't want to cause an a crash.

Sometimes I put a pretend phone up to my ear, with my hand and motion putting it down, I don't make eye contact, it's pretty passive aggressive and ridiculous.

What about a bumper sticker? I think they should make a come back like the fanny pack, at least contributor Shannon Noel says those have made a comeback.

What are you thoughts?

A Single Moment of Inattention

David Little is the newest contributor to Fix The Toaster and I couldn't be more excited to have his voice shared here. I should be sleeping but I just read another of his posts and this explains a bit more about the crash that caused him such injury.

Here is a post copied and pasted, via his permission, from his personal site.

A Single Moment of Innattention

Posted on August 14, 2012by iamdavidlittle

A Single Moment of Inattention

A single moment of inattention can have a profound effect on the lives of many people.  On the night of December 20, 2008 a teenage driver decided to send a text message to his father, letting him know that he was on his way home from church, a reassuring message that he usually sent from the parking lot.

On this evening, he sent that text from his vehicle, as he drove down a rural two lane highway.  That one extremely brief moment in time, meant he did not notice the slowing vehicles in front of him, which he rear-ended before coming into our lane of traffic.  We collided nearly head on, at 55 MPH.

The impact pinned me between my seat and dashboard, with both knees under my chin, my feet dangling in midair. It caused a dislocated femur and fractured hip, two broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a collapsed lung and a broken nose and meant 16 days in the hospital.  It took four nurses to bathe me and to change my bed sheets at the same time.

My wife and three children were able to walk away, thankfully, but the lasting emotional scars from the accident are difficult to measure.  That single moment of inattention meant my children had to watch from roadside as I remained trapped, and wait nearly 20 minutes for emergency crews to arrive.  They watched as I was extracted by the ‘jaws of life’ and placed in an ambulance.  It meant that they would wake-up on Christmas morning without me.

The rest of my family suffered too. That single moment of inattention caused my father to initially think I was dead when my wife, who was very upset, first called him.  It meant I would need a wheel chair and then crutches for over three months and that I would have to live with my parents for eight weeks because my own home was not wheelchair accessible.

I am thankful for my many caretakers.  A wonderful man, a complete stranger, stopped to check on us, and stayed with me while my wife tended to our children.  I can still hear his voice in my head, “Hang on buddy, help’s comin’”.    Also, the best professionals an injured man could ever ask for practiced their craft on me:  The Cotaco Volunteer Fire Dept., Huntsville Hospital ER and SICU doctors and staff, TOC surgeons, and HealthSouth and Johnson and Hayes therapists, and staff.

Our family discusses “the wreck”, once a week if not more.  My children have never forgotten that night, or that time period and loud noises like screeching tires bothers all of us to this day.

I hold no ill-will towards the young man who caused the accident.  He made a mistake, owned up to it, and certainly paid a price in his own right with the knowledge of this.

We are all one event, one illness, one tragedy away from becoming advocates for a cause, and as you might guess, I support tougher laws on texting and driving.

It is my hope that after you read this, you will make a commitment to not text and drive and also talk to your children about it.  They aren’t invincible.

Every day, when I drive, I force myself to leave my phone in my console.

You can too.

A Ticket is all One Woman Received after Plowing Into Another Person, Killing Her Unborn Child

The woman who caused this young woman to lose half of her leg and lose her unborn baby, she was 6 months along, received a ticket. She plowed into this woman going around 70 MPH in a 35 MPH zone. She was texting and speeding.

All of that damage and she received a ticket.

If you want to kill someone in America, do it in a car. You'll probably just get a ticket. We need much stricter laws. Why are we letting people off the hook for killing or maiming others when they are speeding, texting, tailgating? If they don't understand that these actions kill then they should not be given a license or they are too stupid to be driving.

Wake up America.

http://youtu.be/FZHRyk4AbFw

Mom Hit By Texting & Speeding Woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8fbJh2H7Y

Please share this video.

Look at this woman's face and hear her story.

A speeding and texting woman killed her husband and severely injured her. It's insane that people still text/use their phones and drive.

Speeding and tailgating are so irresponsible as well.

Attitudes need to change about our role in preventing these tragedies. Because they are preventable.

I know I've posted her segment before but it's so powerful.

Tailgating Needs To Become As Hot As Texting

You've stopped texting and driving, that's great.

Now how about tailgating? Do you do that? Really?

Does your spouse do it, boyfriend, friend, etc.? Speak up.

Tailgating kills far too many people.

Tailgating does not make you a bad ass. That's a fact. Check that. 

Here are some events I deem worth of being deemed bad ass:

Being nice even when someone else is having a bad day and not being nice to you.

Giving up drinking.

Mountain biking.

Doing something you are afraid of but doing it anyways.

These are just a few examples.

Driving your car right behind human beings too close, so close, that if they were to stop, you would hit them and possibly kill them, just downright is awful.

Too many of these fatal crashes are preventable.

It's time that tailgating takes on the same stigma that texting is getting.

Do you see a lot of people tailgating? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. 

Werner Herzog's Documentary on Texting and Driving

Werner Herzog has made a documentary on texting and driving. He's an amazing documentary film maker. You can read about the film here.

You can watch it here.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/_BqFkRwdFZ0]

Watch it. Have your husband, spouse, grandpa, neighbor watch it. This is what we should worry about, this is what we need to change.

Most Car Crashes are Preventable

A lot of times it is hard to write posts for Fix The Toaster. Sometimes, a certain issue has been rattling around in my head and other times I will simply Google "car crash."

Sadly, not many articles about what we can do to lower the statistics pop up but rather more sad stories of people dying.

The headline of this story grabbed my attention. That is a story, if it remains the same, that really is a pure accident. An older man suffered from a health problem and veered into oncoming traffic. I understand accidents do happen.

This article is interesting as authorities explain why these fatal crashes were preventable.

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. -

Burrillville police said Friday that three crashes in two weeks on Route 102 – two of them fatal – were the result of drivers making bad decisions.

Locals say a particular stretch of Route 102 is notorious for accidents, but police said the road is not to blame for the recent tragedies.

"The cause of each accident is driver error. These accidents have been preventable, unfortunately," Col. Stephen Lynch said at a news conference.

The first crash, on July 5, killed 37-year-old Massiel Ortiz, of Providence, when she made an abrupt U-turn into oncoming traffic. Her two daughters were injured, along with the driver of an oncoming car and his son. Police said the illegal U-turn led to the tragedy.

Six days later, 19-year-old Shannon Heil, of Burrillville, was killed when she veered into the wrong lane and struck an oncoming minivan. Markell Torres, 19, of Easthampton, Mass., who was riding in the backseat without a seatbelt, was also killed.

"We believe that Shannon Heil was distracted, looking down at her cell phone between her legs, just seconds prior to the crash," Lynch said.

On Monday, 21-year-old Daniel Wilson struck two other cars near East Avenue, sending a woman to the hospital. Police said Wilson ran a red light.

Police said the three crashes are a good reminder that when you're driving, the best place for your phone is safely put away in the backseat so you won't be distracted while you're behind the wheel.

Burrillville police said they'll launch a social media campaign on Facebook aimed at safer driving. The state Department of Transportation will do a long-term study of Route 102, looking for ways to make the area safer.

"The important thing to remember is that we can't fix this problem through engineering alone. We are all challenged to give our full attention to the road," said the DOT's Robert Rocchio.

Starting immediately, drivers in Burrillville will see increased patrols with help from Rhode Island State Police. Officers will crack down on speeding and distracted driving, as well as look for drunken drivers.

Their goal is to make sure no more memorials line the roadway.

You are 23 x More Likely to Crash While Texting & Driving

http://youtu.be/6q0lsNOGVa0

April Is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

Most people don't know this. 

If you tell someone this they might laugh at you.

I hope that by talking about the high amount of car crashes that are preventable just by deciding not to talk on your phone or text while driving a few people will change their potentially deadly ways this month.

Why You Should Care About Distracted Driving Month

Today I had my kids color in free, printable pages I downloaded from AT&T's site.

They read "No Text On Board"

I taped them into the inside of my car.

Hoping someone will see and think twice. You are probably thinking, yeah right lady. Before you leave this page, hear me out.

Car crashes are the leading cause of death to people under the age of 12.

A lot of fatal car crashes are avoidable. That is what drives me mad. But that fact drives me. And it is a fact.

Adults are now texting and driving more then teenagers. What a pathetic statistic.

Look around you when you are at stop signs. People have their heads down, looking at their phones. They are probably talking or texting to people they like or perhaps love. They risk not only their own life but yours and others as well.

April is Distracted Awareness Month.

You should care.

Around 110 Americans die in car crashes every single day. And what pisses me off is that a lot of these crashes don't need to happen. They are not accidents. When you are given a diagnosis of cancer the majority seek treatment. Why are we Americans driving around pretending that "accidents" just happen and there's nothing to do to avoid them but buy a safer car? That's the big fat lie we are living by. When we are sick we take care of ourselves. We need to take care of ourselves by driving safely.

I'm talking to as many people as I can now about the dangers of texting, talking and using hands free while driving. It is not safe. Please help us spread the word.

I had printed out on the table a page that had information about a little 9 year-old girl who was run over by someone texting and driving. My 6 1/2 year-old asked who she was. I hesitated and then said, she was a little girl who got run over by and adult texting and driving and she died.

My son was quiet.

A few minutes later I heard him ask my nanny, "Where is this little girl?" My awesome nanny explained that the girl went before her time.

We talk to our kids about danger. The dangers of pools, guns, strangers. We need to talk to them about the danger of cars. But we need to stop being the danger.

We have to start driving with more care for one another.

Because who wants to die in a freaking car crash? Speeding and zipping through lanes just to get somewhere 10 minutes before others is senseless. Especially if you never get there.

There is so much that can be done so I hope you can do something in honor of Distracted Driving month for all of the people who have died in car crashes.

And in the last 10 years alone that number is over 1/2 million, in America alone.

Where are the ribbons for that cause?

Fix The Toaster News

Today was a big week for Fix The Toaster.

Judd Apatow re-tweeted one of our tweets.

But seriously, it made me smile and it got some re-tweets. More then anything I loved that he helped spread the point that we need to be more responsible and drive more safely.

The other big FTT News was that I held a meeting at my house. Albeit only one person showed up. But we formed a group and I did it. I did something kind of weird.

But as my hair dresser said yesterday.

"At first what you say is weird but really it's not weird, we should be talking about this and changing things"

BAM.

Holding a Meeting For Your Neighbors

Last night I held a very informal meeting at my home for residents who were interested in making our streets safer to walk.

Only one person showed.

BUT...we started something. We talked about great ideas and our in the plans to petition our city for sidewalks on our block. We talked about wanting to know each other better and be more social but how we can't because our neighborhood feels so unsafe to walk.

We talked about the parents and people we saw driving through our neighborhood on their phones. 

Next meeting I'm betting I get two neighbors. If that's progress, I'll take it.

If you are interested in doing the same thing please do!!

April is Distracted Awareness Month

We brush and floss. Shower and shave.

We need to start driving with as much devotion.

What's a drawer full of hair products if you kill yourself or someone else in a car crash due to distracted driving?

Make a change in April. Or today.

The University of Iowa

It only takes 2 seconds for us to begin "breaking down" when we take our eyes away from the road. Texts take 4 seconds.

The University of Iowa has a driving simulator that shows us just how we perform when we become distracted.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/IIWR_1W_zwo]

Nothing You Text About Is Worth Compromising Lives

Alex Brown was texting when she died.

Her mother found her lying outside of her vehicle coming in and out of consciousness right before she died.

She was a beautiful high school senior. Her family is trying to convince other people not to text and drive.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/zEiBVfvnR6c]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_93kRFNe3E&feature=endscreen

Bumper Sticker Failure

About a month ago I wrote how I was going to make my own bumper stickers and drive once a week with them. Yeah, that didn't go over so well.

My nanny thought I was selling my car for $40,000, it was hard to read the sign.

Then I found the sign thrown in my trunk, see husband for that.

So, that's not going to happen people. But I did just come across a nice free, printable sign that you could post on your car from Stop The Wrecks.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/dGUea4fcagc]

Moms Are Driving As Poorly As Teens

The headline from a Tweet I just saw said, "New Moms Among the Most Distracted Drivers."(CBS NEW YORK)

Only 4 re-tweets.

I am a parent in a time of deep paranoia. I don't have to tell you that parents are worried. Probably too much right now. There is a lot of talk amongst my circle of moms about getting into the right school, after school activities, making sure our kids get ahead.

But what about just getting our kids there safely via the automobile?

Yesterday I saw a mom driving on her minivan talking on her phone.

It made me angry. Obviously she had kids in the car. Does she not know that talking on your phone increases your chances of being in a car crash by a lot?!

Maybe she doesn't know that car crashes are the leading cause of death to people under the age of 25.

Let's channel some of our modern paranoia into preventing car crashes and saving beautiful lives.