There Ought to be a Law

This week the National Transportation Safety Board has issued a call for a nation wide ban on all cell phone use while driving. This would prevent people from texting and talking while operating a motor vehicle. Something like this is absolutely essential. Many of you know that I do not text or talk while I am driving. Distracted driving caused over 3,000 deaths last year. No text, call, post, or tweet is as important as the little girl who sits behind me in my car. I have ridden in cars where drivers were texting while driving, and it was one of the most frightening things I have ever done. I would never get in the car with a drunk driver, but many of us get into automobiles with distracted drivers on a daily basis. I witnessed a near miss accident where a mom with a mini van full of kids almost hit another car, and then kept on texting.

I know what many of you are thinking, and I agree that this may be a slight inconvenience to you. If you can’t text and drive, how will you stay up to date with everything that is happening in the world, I mean it’s not like those things will still be there when you get out of the car. Or some would say that we don’t need the government making up laws that limit people’s freedom. What about the people who died because they were hit by a distracted driver? What about the parents whose teens were killed because they were texting while driving? This is not a freedom issue. We have no problem with a drunk driving law, and the people who die in distracted driving accidents are gone forever as well. I deserve the freedom to be able to get behind the wheel of my car and know that no one is going to be able to plow into me and my family because they were busy sending a twitpic.

So am I ranting, yes. But I believe in this. As a youth pastor I see too many statics of young people who text and drive and don’t make it home. And this isn’t just a teenage issue, adults are just as bad. Is there something we can do? Of course there is. First, we can choose not to text and drive, especially if we are the adult and are setting the example for our children. Second, we can contact our representatives and tell them to do something about it.

To write your representative, click https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

The site will ask for your zip code and your +4, which you can access through a link on the site. For my Texas friends, our +4 is “4135.”

In the message portion, say something like:

Please listen to the NTSB and do something about distracted drivers. Lives are at stake.