New "Texting while driving" PSA

[Altair]

How many have seen this? It's very powerful and will make you think.:(

[Melanie]

I've seen it. A lot of folks are posting it on Facebook. Very powerful and sobering, although I'm not sure I'm ready to show it to my boys yet.

Before anyone asks for the link, we don't allow linking on INTERCOT in order to maintain our family-friendly atmosphere. If you haven't seen it and want to, just google 'texting while driving psa' and you will find it. It's quite graphic though, so be warned!

[PirateLover]

I've seen clips of it. I hope that it works. I can't believe how many people do this. Between texting and searching through iPods, i'm sure that accidents due to distraction are becoming more and more commonplace. Around here someone just killed one young woman and severely injured another because she was looking for a song on her iPod and ran up onto the sidewalk :(

[nyobabe2]

I've seen clips of it. I hope that it works. I can't believe how many people do this. Between texting and searching through iPods, i'm sure that accidents due to distraction are becoming more and more commonplace. Around here someone just killed one young woman and severely injured another because she was looking for a song on her iPod and ran up onto the sidewalk :(

I was just going to post the same thing. That 19 yr old girl that was killed was a friend of my niece. It's so devastating.

[brad192]

I just watched this today. Very powerful & VERY graphic. The shot of the little baby was particularly disturbing. I love the fact that there's no voiceover in it at all. It just shows the reality of the situation. I think every teenager (and adult) with a cell phone & a driver's license should see this.

[MNNHFLTX]

Is the PSA that was made by a police department in Wales? It certainly does make a powerful statement and I hope people that do a lot of texting while behind the wheel look it up.

[Ian]

Yep. Very powerful.

I'll be honest and admit that I sometimes email and iPod surf while driving and, although I'm always very cognizant of maintaining my focus on the road first, this PSA definitely made me sit up and take notice.

[jillluvsdisney]

It should be required viewing in every driver education class in the country. It should also be run on US television in prime time. Its shocking and violent but it gets the point across very well.

[TheMartellFamily]

I got it the other day on my facebook and forwarded so others could see. I have seen it brought up by others on my list so it is making the rounds. It is such a good thing. I hope it works!

[Jillirose]

I have been talking to my 14 year old daughter about it a lot lately. We had a tragedy here last week and a texter crossed center line, semi swerved to avoid, and 4 young men were killed. Our community is reeling - I'm off to find the PSA....

Graphic may be what is needed to get kids to realize how dangerous this is!! They truly believe in their minds they can multitask on the road like they do at home (watch TV, text on cell phones, and Facebook/email all concurrently).

[Ed]

In my long prior career as a police officer, I had the unhappy task of informing parents of the violent and gruesome deaths of their children in traffic accidents more times than I care to remember. :(

Having witnessed the "real thing" many, many times, I found the PSA to be perhaps a little too 'sterilized' (the real thing is often MUCH more gory than portrayed), but if it helps save even one life, it's worth it.

[Magic Smiles]

I haven't seen it nor did I read all of the posts. Effective 1 Oct 09, I think the date is, there will be an additional 4 provinces in Canada banning cell phones while you are driving. It is already against the law to drive and talk of a cell phone in Quebec.
It is so for the good. You can almost always tell when someone is on their phone. There driving definitely shows it.

[iwassak]

i hope this has an impact on everyone as well, not just teenagers. sadly a lot of people think it won't happen to them-they are proficient at texting & driving. at my kids' high school they have a day during prom season where the "grim reaper" comes to the class & takes a student out, (s.a.d.d.)-their face gets painted white & they have a sign on them & they aren't allowed to talk for the rest of the day to signify they were killed by a drunk driver. my dd told me a lot of students think it's funny & laugh. i believe it was last year a high school announced that 2 students were killed by drunk drivers. the 2 students were involved in it-they were fine. the whole school was devastated. later in the day the girls came in to show they were ok, but what an impact the reality of it was. the kids were affected because they thought it happened to someone they knew. people as so desensitized, sadly we need graphic videos & drastic measures for it to sink in how real it is.

[pink]

I saw the PSA, I'm glad texting while driving is finally getting through to people and I hope this PSA helps.

I had an (ex) friend who was texting while driving, crashed into a divider. Totaled her car and the other drivers car. No one was killed but one of her friends in the backseat had her head cut open and her parents sued the texting driver.

It's a very irresponsible and dangerous thing to do. :(

[handmaidenofprincesses]

Okay I agree with the fact that texting while driving is bad (my friends do it all the time, and I yell at them) but one quick caveat about this PSA-

I've had several of my friends post the video on Facebook and write "all parents should watch this with their children!" Ok, I know they meant teenage children, but not everyone is making the teenage part clear. My best friend nearly showed it to her 7 y/o because one of her friends had written children should see it. So, just a note: This video should'nt be viewed, imo, by anyone under 16. If they don't have their license, or their permit, I don't think it's something that they ought to be watching (alhtough with the internet, its hard to stop older kids). The fact is, this video is so graphic that they won't even show the whole thing in the States- and that's after a "viewer discretion" warning. So I guess what I'm saying is just, don't show it to little kids. They'll have nightmares (Heck,I did and I'm 20!)