When my younger brother was in high school, one of his classmates was killed in a motor vehicle accident shortly after leaving school for the day. He had just gotten his permit to drive and was driving himself and his girlfriend home from school. As the story goes, he wasn't paying attention, and some speculate that he may have been trying to show off. Regardless of the circumstance, he took the turn on the exit ramp on one of the highways too fast and wound up flipping over his sport utility vehicle several times. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was thrown into the windshield. His girlfriend, however, was sitting in the front passenger seat and had her seatbelt on. She walked away without a scratch. A few days later, after being on life support, his parents made the difficult decision to end life support due to the fact that their son had suffered such significant brain damage that any chances of recovery were impossible. He was also in a coma and was deemed to be in a 'vegetative state'. Just to think, if he had only worn his seatbelt- if he had only driven a little slower. If only he had been paying attention while he was driving, he could have been a college graduate twice over now, on his way to a career and raising a family. This is just one illustration of what can happen when you don't pay attention while driving. Driving while chatting with friends instead of looking at the roadway is incredibly dangerous. There are some of us who get behind the wheel of our cars and feel as if we are being rude if we don't look directly at the person who is speaking to us. However, you should be aware that the other person would probably prefer it if you kept your eyes on the roadway and avoided an accident versus turning your full attention to them. In addition to being distracted by friends that are in the car, parents are also in danger of not paying as close of attention as they should to the road and their surroundings while driving. Perhaps you work from home or run a business; but at the same time, you also have children who are growing up and need to be shuttled from activity to activity. So, how do you split your time? You multi-task. And more often than not, this multi-tasking often occurs behind the wheel of your car. Instead of running your meeting from your cell phone while you are driving, how about scheduling your phone meetings during a time when you are not driving? Even if you are a responsible driver on most occasions, all it takes is one glance down at your mp3 player or cell phone to not realize that someone has come to an abrupt stop, turned in front of you or that a small child has suddenly darted into the street. You may not wind up hurt, but you may wind up hurting someone else.
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