Parenting • Oct 10, 2013

Texting and Driving – the YouTube videos that could save a life

4 YouTube Videos that Save Lives

Texting is our newest addiction, a fatal addiction if we text while driving.  More than 90% of text messages are looked at within 3 minutes of being received… we just can’t wait.  98% of commuters admit that texting and driving is dangerous, yet 49% percent of commuters and 43% percent of teens admit to texting and driving, according to a 2013 poll.  Have you quit yet?  What did it take?

Statistics alone don’t do much to change addictive behavior.  When it comes to texting and driving, knowledge is not the barrier.  But telling a story—appealing to human emotion—can really change human behavior.  And Hollywood has answered our call to activism with anti-texting-and-driving documentaries, dramas, and outspoken stars.

Here are the YouTube clips you need to share with every driver you know:

1)      More than 300 students from the UK auditioned to be a part of this short film with state-of-the-art digital special effects by award-winning BBC producer Peter Watkins-Hughes.  Watch the short version (80 seconds), or the 4 minute version:

2)      From One Second To the Next is a powerful 35 minute documentary from award-winning director Werner Herzog that tells the true stories of four tragic accidents that resulted from texting while driving.  The full-length film is available on YouTube.

3)      Tim McGraw takes the No-Texting-And-Driving pledge for his teen daughters.  Watch his video here.

4)      Your Last Text is a 3 minute video that combines crash-site photography, video content from the UK film above, and statistics.

What’s your story?  What finally made you quit texting and driving?  Or how come you never started?

For me, it was my minivan with 5 child safety seats squeezed into the back.  I’ve always hated texting and driving, but I must admit that on rare occasions I’ve voice-texted using Siri on my iPhone.  But when I installed that fifth car seat into the last free seat in the back of my van, it really dawned on me that I have six lives that I’m responsible for every day.  My own, and those of my children.  As the driver, my life is most endangered by driving, and they don’t need to grow up without a mother.  And I don’t know how I’d go on living if I caused the death of one of my own children by texting and driving.  When they start driving, how can I tell them not to text-and-drive if I’m still doing it?

Now I leave my phone in the back of the van, where I can’t answer it unless I pull over.  What do you do?  Share your story and save a life.

Comments

  1. A few years ago in my hometown we lost two beautiful teenage sisters in a texting-while-driving accident. I didn’t know them, but thinking of them (and of my teenage sister and I), I cannot bring myself to text while driving. It’s simply not worth the devastation for friends and family.

  2. Great article! I don’t even answer my phone when I am driving. I ask a passenger to answer it if it is important, but otherwise, I wait until I’m parked or I pull over.

    Texting and driving isn’t even a consideration for me. My passengers and people in other cars around me are more important than endangering everyone because I can’t wait to be informed by a text or social media that’s available on my cell phone.

  3. Unless someone can prove it can be done on a closed course without impairing one’s driving (impossible), this should be treated as a felony offense with comparable penalties.

    Unless the fines and penalties are excessive, people will still do it and more people will die.

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