Whether it’s texting, calling, navigating, or something else, using your phone while driving can be dangerous. In fact, texting and driving can have the same consequences as drinking and driving: deaths and injuries. Distracted driving like this is something AAA wants to end. You don’t drive intoxicated, so don’t drive intexticated.
We want to help spread awareness of the dangers of distracted driving by encouraging drivers to put down their phones, because lives depend on it.
Take the Pledge to End Distracted Driving
As a community, we can come together to pledge to end distracted driving. Fill out a pledge card and share it on social media with your family & friends. Encourage others in your circle to take the pledge as well.
Take the pledge today. Download and print the pledge card and upload a selfie to social (use hashtag #DontDriveIntexticated) or fill out the digital card and post directly to your accounts. Be sure to tag us @AAAOregonIdaho.
You can also visit your local AAA Service Center in Oregon and Idaho to pick up a Distracted Driving Awareness sticker, while supplies last.
Speak Up
You wouldn’t let friends & family drink and drive, so why let them text and drive? Distracted driving is every bit as dangerous.
If you’re driving with someone you love and they start looking at their phone, let them know they shouldn’t be doing that. Ask them to put the phone away or offer to send a message, look up directions, or whatever they may need.
Friends don’t let friends text and drive.
Statistics
Tips to Help You Prevent Driving Intexticated
PUT IT AWAY
Place your mobile device out of sight to prevent temptation.
KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING
If using a navigation system, program your destination before driving.
PULL OVER
If you have to call or text while driving, pull off the road safely and stop first.
ASK PASSENGERS FOR HELP
If riding with someone, seek their help to navigate, make a call or send a message.
BE A GOOD PASSENGER
Speak out if the driver of your vehicle is distracted
DON’T BE A DISTRACTION
Avoid calling or texting others when you know they are driving.
DO NOT DISTURB WHILE DRIVING
Set your phone to do not disturb.
For i-phone:
1. Access settings and tap control center
2. Tap customize controls and add “do not disturb while driving”
For Android:
1. Open the Play Store
2. Download an app that enables “do not disturb while driving.”
3. Follow app instructions, as settings may vary
Real Life Consequences
Diane “DeeDee” Gonzalez was riding her motorcycle toward her home in Rancho Palos Verdes, California with her boyfriend, Darius Mehta, following on his motorcycle. They had just 3 miles to go. Suddenly, she saw the tires of an oncoming car crossing the double yellow line up ahead and her life changed forever.
A driver looking down at his phone hit her head-on. The impact threw her off her motorcycle, onto the hood of the car, and into bushes at the side of the road. “I could hear Darius yelling in a panic, ‘Where is she?!’ ” DeeDee says. She never lost consciousness and was aware of every excruciating second.
On a sunny morning in April 2011, Deanna Mauer was stopped in Southern California freeway traffic. Aside from the delay, life was good. At age 23, she had recently graduated from college and was helping to coach a high school girls’ softball team. She was also working at Whole Foods Market, and had just finished an early shift before hitting the road for Los Angeles to take care of a friend’s dogs.
She never got there.
A Toyota slammed into Deanna’s Hyundai from behind. The impact of the crash was so severe that it broke her neck and severed two arteries.
The cause of Deanna’s death? “Our daughter was killed by texting and driving,” says her mother, Dawn Mauer. She now has a tattoo of her daughter’s handprint on her left shoulder so that, she says, “every morning it’s like Deanna has her arm around me.”