Texting-And-Driving-Deaths.com: Ignorance? (my personal reflection on Jennifer Flockhart's story)

It’s funny how fast things can change. Blink and you’ll miss it. Or in Jennifer Flockhart’s case, send a text message. The Iowa teen was killed in a car accident when she sent a text message that caused her to drive into a ditch. She was only 17. I am 17. A few weeks ago, I was speeding on the freeway; texting like it was going out of style. I was ignorant and irresponsible. I could've ended up like the young Ms. Flockhart. This seems to be one of those issues where the phrase “ignorance is bliss” comes to mind. People figure if they don’t know the dangers of texting and driving, they are immune. I, however, strongly disagree with the phrase “ignorance is bliss”. In this case, it is dangerous. After doing a little digging, I quickly realized...

the tragedies that occur from people texting and driving. It’s not only teenagers either, statistics prove it’s 1 in 4 adults as well. Hell, my parents’ text and drive. Granted, I’ve been rather lucky, nothing bad has ever happened to me while I was on my phone and driving, but still; I’ve had a few close calls, but nothing ever came of them. I guess I could chalk it up to my lightening fast reflexes, but I’m pretty sure it’s mostly just luck. Do you believe in luck? I am undecided.

A few days ago, after reading Jennifer’s story, I stumbled upon this website, textkills.com, and it changed my life. I started reading the posts and oh my goodness, there was some heavy stuff on there. Alongside that though, I “discovered” a revolutionary app for smart phones like Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 called SMSReplier w/ DriveReply. I did some research and found out that you can download it at smsreplier.com. I downloaded it right away and it is such a great app. It lets me set a personalized away message for incoming texts and calls while I drive. In this day and age, it is so easy to indulge in a little distracted driving, but this app makes my job behind the wheel a little bit easier.

But back to my bloggity, so much hurt is coming from texting and driving, and having the hero-complex that I do, I wrote this piece. It’s kind of just my thoughts on texting and driving, links to cool (and sometimes depressing) stuff, and whatever else I think is important. I write in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. It’s kind of random, but I’ll do my best to organize it. Also, leave me your thoughts, recommendations, and questions in the comments so I can make this more legit. Anyways, until next time, I hope you check out some of this texting and driving stuff, it may just save your life (or someone else’s).

Like OMG links!!