Unfortunately, texting and driving leads to thousands of vehicular-related deaths a year. In 2014, over 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in the United States alone as a result of distracted driving—of which texting and other phone usage is a major contributor.
If those statistics weren’t shocking enough, this reality check from a trucker should do the trick. The video starts off with a trucker stating he doesn’t normally make videos of him talking, but boy, did he nail this one, in which he finds himself sitting as the lead vehicle in a traffic jam as a result of a texting-while-driving accident. According to the trucker, a teen driver was texting while driving eastbound when she flew across the median, collided with another vehicle, causing a three-car wreck. The girl texting first had a head-on collision with a vehicle traveling westbound, causing the westbound vehicle to flip and catch on fire. Then, that vehicle hit a semi-truck, causing it to fly off the road and into the field. The trucker also mentioned that one occupant broke both his legs and was AMS (altered mental status).
Since the accident took place in South Dakota, first responders were 30 minutes away—and it takes another 30 minutes to get to the nearest hospital. If “The Bird” isn’t able to fly, a critical patient is definitely more likely to succumb to injuries due to delay in surgical intervention.
Long story short, no text is worth dying (or killing) for, and your phone should remain in your pocket or otherwise out of sight whenever you are driving.
