Text Support

Falling snow is a beautiful thing.

Driving in the snow?

Not so much.

I was reminded of that again last week.

During one of the nastiest storms we have seen in a while, I was on my way to meet my family at a dance competition.

They hitched a ride with someone else, so I was taking my wife’s car there.

She has the four-wheel drive.

On the way I noticed she was getting low on gas.

So I stopped to fill ‘er up.

That’s what nice guys do.

As I got to the station, I made the left.

But my car went straight.

Straight into a pole.

You know that they say about nice guys.

Thankfully I wasn’t going very fast.

And thankfully the air bags did not go off.

And thankfully no one was hurt.

Not in that order.

But the collision was strong enough to do some damage.

$2,600 worth.

And that was before I filled up the tank.

The good news is we have a deductible that makes this a little easier to swallow.

And the better news is our rates are not going to go up because of this little bout of man vs mother nature.

Or so we are told.

Moments after the crash, I called my wife to let her know what had happened.

She quickly checked to make sure I was ok.

Which I was.

Then she went all Barbara Walters on me.

“Were you on a call when it happened?”

“No.”

“Were you surfing the ‘net on your phone?”

“No.”

“Were you texting someone?”

“No.”

One of my single friends told me that the secret to a good marriage is...

Deny, Deny, Deny.

I’m not sure that I totally subscribe to that philosophy.

But in this case my deny, deny, deny was all true.

I was not talking, not surfing and not texting.

Just me vs black ice.

And the black ice won.

I really wish I could say that I never text while I drive.

But I would by lying.

And so would most of you.

According to one stat I just read, 1 out of 5 “experienced adult drivers” in the US send text messages while driving.

That would mean that close to 80% of the people polled were not telling the truth.

This disgusting addiction is not only awful, but it is incredibly dangerous.

If you don’t believe me, google “text” and “accident”.

Set aside a lot of time, and a box of kleenex, if you want to read all of the stories.

Unfortunately I can’t sit here and say that I am perfect and that I never text while driving.

But I can say, with all honesty, that I have made a very conscious effort to completely stop this pathetic habit.

And it’s a work in progress.

But it’s working.

When my kids are in the car, I have them dial for me.

Or text for me.

Or look up NBA Box Scores for me.

I have hooked up hands free calling, for both my wife and I.

I put my phone in a closed compartment to limit its availability.

I would like to say I am a success 100% of the time.

But I can definitely say that percent is growing every day.

My daughter even had me sign the Oprah form.

And you can’t lie to Oprah.

Many of my friends say they try not to text while driving.

But they still do.

Just today I was on the phone with a friend and we were talking about this very subject.

This friend shared a story that hit him hard.

Literally.

Last year he was stopping by work with his teenage son to get some things done.

They were traveling down a road at about 20 miles per hour.

The next thing he remembers is his car flipping over.

Apparently a driver of another car was moving down the same road at 35-40 mph.

35-40, while texting.

Well that driver slammed into one car.

And that car slammed into my friend’s car, totaling it.

The accident turned my friend and his son upside down.

They were both wearing seat belts, which left my friend suspended in the air on top of his son.

Fortunately the only pain the boy felt was when his dad unlatched his seat belt without thinking and landed on him.

They can laugh about it now.

Unfortunately my friend wasn’t quite as lucky.

In fact, since the accident, he has had three epidurals to deal with serious back pain.

And he’s not even pregnant.

I’m hopeful that a full recovery is not far away.

But when you think about what could’ve been it is downright scary.

Hopefully scary enough to stop you from texting while you drive.

And me too.