Please don't drive and text

"Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have."
- insurance claim

You've heard the warning, "Don't Drink and Drive". It's a common problem. Here are two stories on the topic:

No Amount Of Drunkenness Will Turn A Taco Into Your I.D.
A drunk driver passed out in his car in the drive-thru lane at a Taco Bell. While unconcious his foot was on the accelerator revving the engine and it caught fire! When the police arrived the driver handed them a taco when asked for his ID.

Study: Binge Boozing Costs Society $2 Per Drink
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a study showing that each alcoholic drink ends up costing society $2 in extra medical expenses, locking up drunk drivers, and damage from accidents.

And yet drunk driving is not the only problem behind the wheel. Driving while tired is a big problem in today's society where most adults do not get enough sleep. A great-uncle of mine fell asleep while driving and drove off an overpass.

New problems for drivers include cell phones and texting. I read one story of a bus driver who sheared off the top of his bus on a low overpass. He had missed the height warning sigans while complaining on a cell phone.

Texting may be even worse than cell phones. The Blackberry outage last month gave researchers a chance to measure the impact. In the country of Dubai, while Blackberries were offline, traffic accidents fell 20% from their average rates. In the city of Abu Dhabi, accidents fell by 40% and there were no fatal accidents during the outage.

Bottom Line

Driving is serious business. We take it for granted but fast moving cars are deadly weapons and the driver must remain alert at all times. A single distraction is all it takes for an accident.