The No Phone Zone

Oprah dedicated her show a couple months ago to launching her new “No Phone Zone” campaign in an effort to stop talking and texting while driving. This show opened my eyes to how dangerous distracted driving is with statistics showing that talking on the phone or texting while driving is just as dangerous as driving drunk.

A recent study shows that 71% of people between the ages of 18 to 49 admit to texting or talking on the phone while driving. Every year, 500,000 people are injured, and 6,000 are killed by distracted driving. The show featured families who have lost loved ones to someone who had been using handheld phones or texting. The stories were absolutely devastating and made me realize how fast someone’s life can be taken. A second spent looking down at your phone while texting can lead to complete devastation. We are not invisible and the mindset of, “oh that will never happen to me” is simply not true. Every single person who has lost their lives to distracted driving was thinking that same thing. Oprah has encouraged us all to log onto her website to take the No Phone Zone pledge. So far there have been 149,688 people who have committed to one of the three options the pledge provides. I know it can be tempting to talk and text while driving but I would encourage you to think twice about whether or not it’s worth it. Can the phone call or text wait? Most likely it can and by doing so you could potentially save your life or the life of other’s.

A mom's worst nightmare