Girl Gives Man Brain

Girl Gives Man Brain Damage Using Her Phone

Would you drive down the road with your eyes closed for 5 to 10 seconds? Probably not, but that is exactly what you are doing when posting to social networks while driving.

If you didn’t hear the story, an 18-year-old girl was SnapChatting while driving 107 MPH and crashes into a man giving him brain damage.  The man then sues SnapChat because of the “speed filter” on the app that tells other SnapChat users how fast you were driving.

Recently in the news it seems to be an epidemic of SnapChatters and accidents.  When the news broke of the lawsuit, it appeared that the number of SnapChat users increased while driving.

Interesting the logo is a ghost?

Removing your eyes off the road for only 5 seconds can be highly dangerous.  Texting laws were not created to discourage people from social media but rather they were created because people care.  Do you want to know who cares?  Your mom cares, your dad cares, your significant other cares, your brother cares, your sister cares, your friends care, if you have kids, they care and if you don’t care about yourself, care about the people in the other car. This is an important matter.  You are that important matter.  Somebody cares and I beg you to put down the phone, if not for you, for your loved ones.

If you don’t believe it takes lives, in 2014, 3179 people were killed texting while driving.  Worse than that over 400,000 of the lucky ones were injured in distracted driving accidents.  According to the website http://www.distraction.gov, “five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded.”

I get it, you are addicted to your phone and social media.  I enjoy social media time myself, but I keep it out of the car.  Often we get in habit mode and believe it or not that is what the social networks want you to do, but in driving it is a habit you are going to have to break.  It’s one I had to do myself.

Here are some helpful tricks that help me break the habit.

• Turn off your phone before driving.
• Put your phone in the glove box or in your purse, if you have one.
• Keep it in your back pocket.
• Most newer phones have a driving mode and won’t let you text while driving.

If you have other tips, we would love to hear them.  Remember, most of all, dead people don’t Facebook. (or SnapChat)