Oprah is talking about distracted driving today on her show. As a matter of fact a local man from Utah will share his grief for causing a crash while driving distracted.

The United States is a society of multi-taskers and obsessed with electronic gagets of all types – especially our smart phones. We talk on them, text on them, look at maps on them and even play games on them – all while driving. Distracted driving is becoming an epidemic. Distracted driving is like driving drunk. This is an issue especially dangerous to motorcycle riders because distracted drivers can turn in front of you claiming they just did not see you. Of course they did not see you because they just plain old were not paying attention. When you are propelling a two ton vehicle down the road it is a dangerous piece of equipment – just like a loaded pistol.

The tragedy is on both sides. Of course the person injured endures pain – sometimes years of pain and rehabilitation – and those are the lucky ones. Of course sometimes people are killed and the surviving family is left to deal with the loss. But what about the person who was texting or taling on the smart phone? They are not bad people and probably did not purposefully intend to hurt or kill the person they hit. But nonetheless they caused the crash. They have to live the rest of their lives with the knowing that they have caused great hardship to others.

One of the worst offending segments of society that drive distracted are teenagers. Here is a video that tries to make teens aware of the dangers of texting and driving. If you have lost a loved one or been injured as a result of distracted driving you might think that this video is offensive because it takes a light-hearted approach. But consider teh audience – we need to do everything we can to make sure that people, people of all ages, do not drive distracted.

Here are a few links to great sites that talk about distracted driving and we invite you to become more involved but there is one very simple thing we can all do – and that of course is to pledge that you will not be a distracted driver and not use your phone at all while you drive.

National Safety Council

Focus Driven Advocates for Cell-free Driving

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