Distracted Driving

Imagine driving 55-mph down a highway while blindfolded. Sounds crazy, but thousands of drivers are doing just that every day. Motorists who send, or read, just one text while behind the wheel take their eyes of the road for 4.6 seconds on average, or the equivalent of driving the length of a football field with…

On Thanksgiving Day in 2008, nine-year-old Erica Forney of Fort Collins, Colorado, died. She didn’t have a terminal illness. She wasn’t playing with matches or an unattended gun. Two days before Thanksgiving, she was riding her bike home from school, the way she did every day. Just two houses away from her own, she was…

Last December, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed into law a ban on texting while driving, joining 20 other states, the District of Columbia, and Guam in an attempt to prevent the increasing number of accidents caused by cell phone distraction. Six other states, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all forms of cell phone…

Drinking and driving…most of us wouldn’t consider driving while drunk. But, most of us have talked on our cell phones while driving. But, do we really appreciate the ramifications of driving and talking on our phones. A recent study by the AAA Foundation, using driving simulators, suggests that drivers talking on their cell phones exhibit…

Each day thousands, if not millions, of teenagers across the country text while driving. However, too few of these teens take the time to think that what seems like an inconsequential activity can lead to fatal results. Patrick Sims is one of those teens. In November, 2005, the day before Thanksgiving, Patrick was texting while…