Today's Rant......

WE had a lady in our church loose a teen granddaughter because her car was hit by a drunk driver. How pointless, the gentleman that hit the car was 28 and this was not his first offense.

This has always been a sore spot from me, although I have not personally been affected by a drunk driver tragedy. It is so pointless, and it should never have to happen. The person drinking and driving does not have to do this and it is a stupid decision. So this week at least two families were forever altered because of a drunk driver, the family that the teen died from, and the family of the drunk driver and in this situation there were two other people injured. I do not know their situation.

Alan and I also watched a movie this week entitle Seven Pounds, which was a decent movie with Will Smith in it. The jest of the movie comes out at the end of the movie that he was reading a text message while driving and killed his wife, and 6 more(or seriously injured 6 more). Their is more to the movie but these 2 events this week got me thinking about texting and driving(reading text messages/ or literally texting while driving). I will admit on occasion I have done this, read a text or sent a one word answer.

Today it stops. I challenge you to do the same. You are to precious to your family to do this to them, and the other cars that you meet are to precious to their family for you to be doing this, also.

Some statics for you on the internet.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 5,870 people died in car accidents in 2008. ( This is 5870 to many, 5870 families have been altered because someone could not wait to read or send a text. Nothing is that important.) An additional 515,000 people were injured. Ridiculous!!!

50% of teenage drivers admit to texting while driving.
28% of all accidents in 2008 were caused by drivers between the ages of 18 and 29 that were texting while driving. (To my family and yours please stop it, and stop it now,you don't want to become part of this number. Your cargo is to precious to us, and their cargo is to precious to them).

Teens are not the only ones doing this. 81% of the U.S. population admits to texting while driving.

Most drivers today are aware of the risks of texting while driving but do it anyways

Due to the fact that text messaging slows a driver’s reaction time by 30%, texting while driving is being shown to cause greater impairment than being on drugs or drinking while driving.

So reading or sending texts, twittering, or checking out facebook needs to stop while you are in the car........Nothing is so important that it can not wait a few minutes until we get to our destinations. WE are not that important, but we are important enough to our families to not put them through an accident like this, just like the drunk driver should never get behind the wheel. We all think that kind of accident is such a waste and we should feel the same about our telephones in the car.

So Lord willing for me, this stopped today. I challenge you to stop and do the same because you are loved to your family and the vehicles you meet are loved by their families.

So that's my rant for today.
Joan