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Driving and texting is a bad mix. Save a life maybe your own!
I was driving my brand new 50 year Anniversary Ruby Red Mustang with my husband in the passenger seat on a bright clear sunny day with temperatures in the 40’s on April 18, 2015. We were waiting patiently at a yield sign for the traffic to clear when we felt a heavy jolt on our seats. The SUV behind us had plowed into the back seat of our new Mustang. My husband immediately called the police. I quickly got out of the Mustang and walked behind my mustang before the driver backed up and left the scene of the accident. I looked at the driver, a young woman around 21, and noticed she was texting!
I quickly took a picture of the back of my new Mustang which had her license plate embedded in the bumper of my car. Her SUV was not damaged other than her missing license plate stuck in the back of my formerly new now damaged Mustang. The back of it looked like a folded accordion. At least no one was hurt.
The police and fire department were there within 10 minutes of the accident. We showed the policeman her license embedded in our Mustang.The policeman removed it from the back of the Mustang with great force handing it back to the SUV driver, instead of impounding the evidence!
The young woman a few minutes later, told me how sorry she was about damaging my new Mustang. She said, “I was on my way to College to take my final exam as I have been sick. My final was postponed until today!”
The young woman’s mother showed up and didn’t want her daughter to sign the police report admitting her guilt.
My damaged new Mustang was driven to the dealership and then to the local repair shop.
Meanwhile the young woman who ran through my new Mustang with her SUV while texting had her insurance company representative call me. She said, “It was your fault and the police do not count as witnesses. Our insurance company will not pay the claim!”
I told her insurance agent I had a passenger in my car who was a witness as to what her client had done to my new 50th Anniversary Mustang and her clients license was imbedded into the back of my car. I had taken a picture to prove it!”
After her call, I called my insurance agent and told him what she had said and asked him to handle it!
It took 6 months and over $12,000 to repair my 50th Anniversary Mustang to look like new! The fire department sent me a bill for $200 and the repair shop gave me a bill for $200 after the insurance was paid.
My insurance company paid the claim and eventually forced her insurance company to reimburse them for their client’s damage to my Mustang.
Most people are conditioned to respond immediately to the needs, alerts, and messages of other people. Like a lab rat addicted to drugs, our brains have been rewired to respond.
In the United States, distracted drivers cause 1 out of 4 traffic accidents. That’s 1.6 million crashes every year causing 330,000 injuries and deaths each year.
Is your life worth not being able to wait a few minutes to respond to the ping or alert you’ve just received?
One thing I’ve found useful is to switch my cell phone in the “off” position, and place it out of reach.
If you need your phone for navigation, disable the alerts from all apps other than your map app. They’ll be there when you arrive at your destination. More importantly… you will arrive at your destination in one piece!
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