Fourth of July...Don't let this be your last celebration...

When I first graduated from UNT, I worked at my hometown newspaper as an intern for the summer. I was thrilled to be writing everyday about anything and everything. However, I dreaded the weekends because, as the lowest man on the totem pole, I had the police beat. That was the summer I really learned the power of prayer. I would hit the ground each Friday praying and praying that nothing bad would happen on my watch because I really didn't know how I would handle it, much less report on it. For the most part, it was a very quiet summer.

As I have aged, my scope has widened. Now with each holiday that comes, I pray and pray and pray that the news will not have a tragedy to report each holiday weekend. Fourth of July is a big one for me. It seems to never fail that a life is tragically lost on Lake Lewisville, yet people continue to flock to the water as if a siren calls them to it.

I was thinking this morning, that I have spent the better part of a couple of decades praying for tragedies to take a holiday like the rest of us...like there is some gang of trouble makers going out to wreck havoc for their you-know-whats and giggles.

We are the havoc! Our choices are no one's but our own. If you choose to drink and drive, you choose to take your own life and/or the lives of others. If you choose to let your cellular device distract you from driving your automobile safely, you choose to take your own life and/or the lives of others. Every time you choose to make an unwise decision, you choose to risk this being your last celebration. Sometimes, you are making a choice for someone else.

Because he chose to let distractions take his attention from the road, a 51-year-old tractor trailer driver from Oklahoma stole our beloved Gayla from us. Our hearts will always be broken because this is a tragedy that could have been prevented. Accident or not, that man chose to be distracted. He will forever have to live with his choice and so will we.

Make wise choices everyday. Live to celebrate all life has to give. Be well and be safe, friends. Happy 4th of July.

Texas Speed Limit Increase...Dieing to Get There!

PHOTO SOURCE

"Uh...Jaimee, why is everyone passing us like we are sitting still?" questioned my 15-year-old from the passenger side of my car. "I mean, I know you drive slow (stink eye given), I mean the speed limit, but this is ridiculous!"


I looked around and was flabbergasted...Holy! Moly! I was stunned to see the speed limit on Interstate 30 between Greenville and Texarkana had increased to 75 m.p.h. The shock continued that the night time speed limit sign of 65 m.p.h. was gone as well. I was scared stiff watching Tractor Trailers speeding by me at sometimes more than 75 m.p.h.


Hubby Dearest's response to my concern was laughter. It really had been a long time since I adventured out on my own. Since my sister's death in March 2011, the panic attacks and uneasiness behind the wheel have kept me to only making treks to and from work with an occasional visit with near-by friends. This would be the first time for me to be "on-my-own" in more than a year. I was forcing myself to start living again, which is ironic because it seemed the likelihood of being killed in a car accident had just increased. It made me want to dart back into my hole and hide some more.


According to a story from August 2011, which I found on the Huntsville Item, "In Texas, speed limits are set by a method known as the 85th percentile, which considers the speed the majority of drivers are traveling."


So for all of you, like me, whose mothers used to say, "If all of your friends jumped off a cliff, would you join them?" I guess the answer is "YES" if you live in Texas because, apparently, out of 100 drivers, 85 or more of them always drive more than 70 m.p.h. on Texas highways.


TxDOT Traffic Operations Division Director Carol Rawson said, on NewsTalk 1290 back in January, "Posting new speed limits on 1,500 miles of interstate highway is a major milestone in implementing the new law. Texas’ economic strength depends on the efficient and safe movement of people and goods. These new speed limits increase highway efficiency while maintaining the safety of the transportation system.” Ummm...economic strength...safety??? You can't get money out of dead people, Texas!
With a little more research today (Thank You, Star-Telegram), I also found out "... Texas is famous (safety advocates might say infamous) for its 80-mph limit on 521 miles of I-10 and I-20 in far West Texas." Are you kidding!!!!!! No way, thank you very much!

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/26/3691627/many-texas-highways-will-soon.html#storylink=cpy

The conspiracy theorist that I keep hidden in my bonnet most of the time says this is the petroleum industry's way of selling more gas. I was averaging 30.3 m.p.g. in my Altima at the time I spotted the speed limit change. I tried out the new speed limit for about an hour of white knuckle anxiety and the mileage dropped to 28.6 m.p.g. Ha! I slowed back down to 70 and used financial excuses to put off my daughter's huffing complaints.


All joking aside, Texas is leading the country in distracted driving deaths and injuries. And, yes, Darling Daughter counted and pointed out which speeding bullets were zooming past us where the driver was distracted by a cellular device (not counting wrangling kiddos, dashboard dining or playing with your controls). Out of 100 cars...65. Twenty more percent and maybe we will pass a law okaying distracted driving! I think I will investigate telecommuting soon!

Multi-tasking is distracted driving...

PHOTO SOURCE

Do Something Now about Distracted Driving...Not Later When You've Lost So Much!

Everyday, I look for more information on distracted driving. It really doesn't take more than a simple Google search of the news to find a plethora of intel. I was about to post this story about a widow in Roanoke honoring her husband by speaking out against distracted driving with the comment, "Do something about distracted driving before you are left doing it in honor of someone you lost." Then it dawned on me that this was the post I wanted to write today.


It shames me to say that I have not always driven distraction free. I have broken every rule that I now live by plus some. In 2009, I actually rear-ended an SUV because I was emotionally compromised by an incident at work and did not stop in time. Thankfully, no one was hurt (except my little plastic car). You would think that this near miss would have shook me awake. However, it was the loss of my beautiful sister Gayla that finally put me into gear. No one listens to you until you make a mistake has been a truism that I have often considered. I'll revise it to say no one listens until you're gone.

Be aware and share what you know with the ones you love. Don't wait until you are left with a broken heart before you remove distractions from your driving. Don't tell yourself the lie that you are different, you can handle it, you can do it better, it won't happen to you. You are 23 times more likely to be in a wreck when you are distracted by texting on your cellar equipment. Drivers who use hand-held devices are 4 times more likely to get into crashes. When you're sending or receiving a text, you take your eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 mph, that is the same as driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed.

Dashboard Dining is Distracted Driving

Luigi Fraschini wrote in his Driving Today article "Eating on the Run", "While 68 percent of Americans say they eat in their cars to save time, they also have concerns about messiness, trash or spills that come along with eating on the go. In fact, 37 percent of respondents cited messiness and spills as their primary concern while eating in the car. Happily another 33 percent cited safety."

As the guy from Invisible Children and Maria Shriver can attest, if you are going to have a cause and try to change the way people see your chosen good will, then you shouldn't screw up or get busted doing something unsavory or doing exactly what you are preaching against (him Joseph Kony and her hand-held cell phones). I have been making sure that in this endeavor to educate Texans about the distractions that we face in our vehicles these days, I don't do anything that would be distracted driving. However, I might have forgotten a big one, DASHBOARD DINING--the art of eating while driving.

Well, I am busted! And I almost paid the ultimate price for it. Doubly bad is that it's raining here in my part of the Lone Star State and traffic only gets worse when the wet stuff falls from the sky. We see it so rarely that we forget how to drive when rain visits us.

Nevertheless, this morning I was in a rush to get to work and decided to eat and drive to save time. I made it through my Sonic Ultimate Meat and Cheese Burrito just fine. It was just as I popped the yummy little mint (the soft kind that melt easily THANK GOD!) into my mouth that a fellow commuter cut me off. I braked hard to avoid a collision and narrowly saved us both from having to do a rain dance to exchange information. Down side...that not so little mint flew down my throat WHOLE and wedged itself sideways.

Although panicked, I managed to pull into a parking lot safely. It might have only been a minute but I made myself stay calm to assess the situation even though I was sure that I was going to die of suffocation before I could figure how to give myself the Heimlich maneuver using the steering wheel. Then I realized that I was still breathing.

Thank you, Baby Jesus! It went down the "right" way, but Holy-things-swallowed-whole, it hurt and no manner of continuous swallowing was making it budge. I decided a hot beverage might melt the little offender more quickly. I got to my office and made myself a hot tea. I think it has finally dissolved or moved on down to the stomach. However, this life lesson will stick with me. No more dashboard dining! No more distracted driving!

Spring Break is Over...The Mission Continues

Thanks for understanding I needed a break. We are back and I am more determined than ever to educate everyone on the dangers of distracted driving.  Check out what I found on my daily Google for Distracted Driving News:

Forbes Magazine Article: Author Dale Buss makes some good points. "The real problem is the distractions that take over their minds while they're driving, regardless of whether they're handling all of the electronic communications 'hands-free'." As the passenger on Sunday, I proved this in that my eyes never left the road we were traveling. However, because I was thinking about my sister's death last year and having to leave my parents on the day before the anniversary of her death to return to "the real world," I didn't remember anything of our trip home. What if I had been the driver? Unfortunately, I know that I have done the zone out thing while being the driver too. Another point Buss made is that automakers are going to have a hard time staying up with the latest technology in the cars they make and making those same cars distraction free. You really cannot say, "Hey buy this car ...we support the IPad 3...be distraction free." The two just cannot continue to hold hands and play nice.

PoliceOne.com: Since enacting the ban on cell phone use in California, that state is seeing a decrease in the number of motor vehicle accidents involving distracted drivers.

Life Before Text App: Holy Crochet Batman! I love this app and will get it for the darling daughter. Parents set the speed limit on the app, say 10 mph. The phone still receives missed calls and texts but doesn't disturb the teen driver. It just displays what was missed while being distraction free. Also, if the teen driver disables the app, IT SENDS AN EMAIL TO THE PARENTS. Genius!

You Are Going Blind!!!!

LOOK OUT!!!!

An Australian study from 2005 showed researchers that drivers using hands-free devices while driving are still four times more likely to be in an accident, the same chance as someone holding their cellular phone while talking and driving. "Motorists are more accident-prone and slower to react when they talk on cellular telephones - even hands-free models - because 'inattention blindness' makes the drivers less able to process visual information," University of Utah researchers found in 2003.

I figured out this weekend the reason why everyone is subject to inattention blindness. It doesn't have to be the electronics in your car. For me, it was the chatty teen sitting right next to me. It dawned on me as we were happily going to see our friends on Saturday that I hadn't really seen where we were going even though my "eyes" were on the road. My mind was preoccupied with girl child telling a story, and we straight up passed a store at which we wanted to purchase a Giant Metal Chicken for our Sosie's birthday. I was astonished that we had to back track more than two miles to make our purchase. That is more than two miles of heavy traffic that could have taken us out. I am just amazed that we weren't.

Inattention Blindness happens to EVERYONE so don't get all judgy on me (I feel bad enough as it is). Always the brainiac, I researched this to learn more about it. My favorite research comes out of Harvard, The Invisible Gorilla Test. The study asked people to watch a video where two teams wearing black and white t-shirts pass a basketball around. They were told to count the number of passes made by one of the teams. In the video someone walks through the players wearing a full gorilla suit. After watching the video, the subjects were asked if they saw anything out of the ordinary... 50% of the subjects did not report seeing the gorilla. This research showed that what is in our sight area is not seen if our mind is focused on another task.

That scares the crap out of me! I think about how many times I became bored on the long trip from DFW to East Texas to see my family and zoned out. Unless there is a needed potty break in Sulfur Springs or Mount Pleasant, you could drive on Interstate 30 and never see the crepe myrtle grower outside of Greenville or the Rainbow Ranch. There's an exit 1993 that I have always looked for because that was the year I graduated from high school. Those are just a few of the scenes on the side of the road...what about those tractor trailers that are on the road with me? What about that road rager? The gal putting on her make-up or yelling at her kids? The idiot with the dog in his lap? Distractions, distractions, distractions...they are EVERYWHERE!

REPOSTED: Distracted Driving

Me and Gayla in 2010
Sister was my biggest fan, and I am still in search
of how she hung the moon so perfectly.

REPOSTED FROM jaimeehunter.blogspot.com


Do you see that beautiful smile on the right? That, friends, is the most amazing amount of sunshine within a gorgeous soul the world could ever imagine. I speak in hyperbole because to understand the depth of this chasm of pain our family, friends and I now suffer, you must first understand the immense joy we had in our lives when Gayla was here.

It has been almost a year since Sister was killed. I am dreading March 19 as much as I dreaded her birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year because without her, happy times are just too sad to describe in words. Even when I lived in New York in 2000, I never went more than a couple of months without seeing my sister, and now a year has become an eternity without her. Every day it feels like this hole in my heart just gets bigger and bigger. If time heals all wounds, then time needs to get on with the program, Friends.

For those who may not be aware, Gayla was killed by a distracted driver. He told the authorities he looked down to put his tractor trailer back into gear as he down shifted in stalled and sluggish traffic rather than braking. No one was in that 18-wheeler's cab so we will never know if this is true or if there might have been a cellular device involved or even a moment to look down to find a new radio station or balance a toppling coffee cup while dashboard dining. Regardless, that truck driver was doing something that distracted him from his job...driving his rig safely. He plowed into the rear of Sister's little mid-sized sedan sending her barreling into a wire guardrail. The impact broke her neck and killed her instantly and robbed this family of our Gayla.

Distracted driving is the main contributing factor for more than 8,000 automobile accidents EVERY DAY. In 2010, more than 33,000 deaths of the 1 million lives lost in the last 25 years were because of automobile accidents. What else does AAA (triple A) have to say for distracted driving?

• Drivers spend more than half their time behind the wheel engaged in distracted behavior.
• Using a cell phone while driving quadruples your risk of crashing.
• Eating, smoking, adjusting music or rubbernecking while driving can be just as dangerous as texting, emailing or talking on a cell phone.
• Passengers are one of the most frequently reported causes of distraction, with young children being four times more distracting than adults and infants being eight times more distracting.

The official US Government website for addressing distracted driving can be found at www.distraction.gov, and it states, "Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety."

TAKE THE PLEDGE! I cannot encourage you enough! Don't let distractions get in the way of you driving safely. Even if you are a master multi-tasker, don't risk your life or the lives of others while driving. The fight to end distracted driving starts with you. Make the commitment to drive phone-free today.

Distracted driving kills and injures thousands of people each year. I pledge to:

• Protect lives by never texting or talking on the phone while driving.
• Be a good passenger and speak out if the driver in my car is distracted.
• Encourage my friends and family to drive phone-free.

REPOSTED: Planting Grass Seeds

REPOSTED FROM
jaimeehunter.blogspot.com

If you haven't heard, I'm MADD AND SADD. Except in this case I am a mother and sister against distracted driving instead of drunk driving (although I am pretty firmly against that too). A distracted truck driver who probably was fiddling with his cell phone, killed my beautiful sister Gayla almost one year ago. I feel more and more anger everyday and, for months now, I have felt compelled to DO SOMETHING to change how we as a society view being distracted by cell phones in the car.

When I printed out the PLEDGE last week and tried to get my loved ones and co-workers to sign it, I was appalled that more than one person laughed in MY face and said, "That's not gonna happen. You'll never get that to go." Well, myMama always says if you want to get something done, tell me I can't do it. DING!

I have no idea what I am doing or where to even begin. Since I am a nerd-by-nature I will start with research, and who better to glean ideas from than the mothers who got in the world's face more than 30 years ago when it was almost a joke to drink and drive a car. To learn more about what I am ranting, Read this excerpt by Laurie Davies from the Fall of 2005:

Twenty-five years ago, a heartbroken mother made a pledge in her deceased daughter’s bedroom. She would do something about the outrage of drunk driving—a decision that quickly inspired a handful of grieving, determined mothers to join in the fight. Though united in cause, they had no office, no money and no clout. In fact, all they had was sorrow, pluck and a picture of a pretty, 13-year-old girl killed by a drunk driver. Yet they initiated one of the great grassroots successes in American history. They were as their name suggests: MADD. As their fledgling organization grew, they stood toe to toe with politicians who knew the stats but did not act. They took on a powerful industry that put profit over safety. They challenged a society that viewed drinking and driving as acceptable—even laughable. And they caused a visceral reaction. The getting there wasn’t easy. It was tough. It was messy. And it was fraught with obstacles. Yet MADD proved, time and time again, that it would not be bullied or derailed. In fact, MADD blazed a trail that other organizations have since followed. They made hard, cold statistics come to life. They did not just say that drunk driving killed thousands and injured millions. They held up photographs—and described every nuance of their loved ones’ lives—to prove it. As a result, a mountain of traffic safety and victims’ rights legislation has been passed. Annual alcohol-related traffic fatalities have dropped from an estimated 30,000 in 1980 to fewer than 17,000 today. And, perhaps most important, society no longer views drunk driving as acceptable. Looking back over 25 years, it’s an amazing story. A grieving mother’s determination sparked a volunteer movement that swept the nation and has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

I may not have a plan, but I have passion, which in my world is fuel. So world, be forewarned, I have planted some grass seeds and am tending them. Watch out! The roots are going to strangle out our society's acceptance that distracted driving is just a fact of everyday life.