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When I arrived home one night last week, my wife was having what appeared to be an intense phone call with one of her sisters, and I could tell that she was rattled. When she hung up, she informed me that one of her nephews who’s in his 20s was in a very bad automobile accident; while the car he drove was totaled, he was physically fine albeit pretty shaken up. We breathed a sigh of relief and said a prayerful thanks.
As a part of morning meeting the next day, I shared this story and informed the upper school students that the cause of his accident was distracted driving. As he was reading a text while driving, he veered off the road into a ditch and the car flipped over. Thankfully, there was nobody in the passenger seat, and he was wearing a seat belt. I made a plea to the students to put away their phones while driving and not text when they are behind the wheel. Later that day, some students told me that the announcement had an impact on them, and they would quit texting while driving. I can only hope that this is true.
As we know, teenagers are certainly not the only people to text while driving, and we should not make them think that this issue is unique to them. Nonetheless, there is a great deal of information on the dangers of texting and driving, and I wanted to share an article with you, so you can share it with your children if you wish.
Erin Schumaker wrote a piece, “10 Statistics That Capture The Dangers of Texting and Driving,” in The Huffington Post last summer. In this article, it says that 40% of teens report that they have been in a car where the driver’s use of a cell phone put them in danger. Just as frightening was the fact that one in four accidents involved the use of a cell phone.
We know that very often teens hear about bad things and believe that they cannot happen to them. Consequently, as parents we have to walk that fine line between not paralyzing them with fear but still making them aware. In addition, there are tools available if we want to make sure that our teens are not distracted by their phones while behind the wheel.
For example, in the category of “trust but verify,” there are a number of phone apps available, including one that a Bosque student and a friend developed, that shuts down a phone, except for the music on it, while the car is in motion. Once the car stops for a period of time, the phone and texting options return. Some apps also allow parents to check if the phone is actually shut off while their child is driving. Students might rebel against what they see as intrusion, but as parents, we may need to help them resist the urge to check their phone while driving.
As we all know, the problems with distracted driving are real and they’re not going away soon. Although my wife’s nephew will be fine, we are only too aware that we were fortunate, and that all too many other parents, aunts, and uncles have not been as lucky. We cannot always be there for our children, but we can continue to impress upon them the need to drive without distraction and to put their phones down. At the end of the day, no phone call or text is worth the risk.
