It Can Wait

It Can Wait

Click on the It Can Wait link above to receive a simple but powerful message of using your phone while driving. Please share.

Texting and Driving PSA Contest Winner Announced

 

The law firm of Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz sponsored a TEXTING AND DRIVING Public Safety Announcement (PSA) CONTEST for local high school students. The contest was part of the law firm’s Put the Phone Down (http://www.putthephonedown.org/) campaign that began in 2013.

The winning entry was submitted by Stefan Hustrulid, a freshman at Florida SouthWestern Collegiate High School. Hustrulid’s winning video outlined the dangers of texting while driving and earned both him and his high school $250.

Put the Phone Down is a campaign to help educate motorists on the dangers of texting and driving. This year Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz enlisted the help of high school students to help bring awareness to young drivers on the alarming statistics of distracted driving caused traffic crashes. Lee, Collier and Charlotte County high school students were invited to submit a video PSA to help make people aware of the dangers of texting and driving. The winning submission would be awarded $250 to both the individual and the individual’s high school.

 

 

 

 

Texting and Driving 

Public Service Announcement Contest

In 2013, Goldstein, Buckley Cechman, Rice & Purtz, P.A. (GBCR&P) initiated the Put the Phone Down (http://www.putthephonedown.org/) campaign to help educate motorists on the dangers of driving and texting. This year Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz want your help in bringing awareness to young drivers on the alarming statistics that are harming youth today. If you are a high school student in Lee, Collier or Charlotte County, we would like for you to submit a Public Service Announcement to help make people aware of the dangers of texting and driving.Entering is easy—create a short video (suggested length 2 minutes or less) in the form of a Public Service Announcement. The video should make viewers aware of the dangers of texting and driving by using graphics, pictures, storytelling, statistics or whatever creative use of your talents you can think of. The winner will be chosen based on content of video, impact, and creativity. You do not need to be a professional videographer to enter—enter a submission as a group, individual or a class…

Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz will award $250 to the winner and $250 to the winner’s high school. Click here to submit your video!

Dear Mom and Dad - Distracted Driving Video

See this video posted by misshaily88 uploaded on August 14, 2010 for Seventeen's Distracted Driving Contest.

Texting and Driving is Against the Law...

Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz ask you NOT to text while driving. It causes accidents and its against the law. See our newest commercial...

Study: 4 in 10 use social media while driving

By Gavin Stern. CREATED May 21, 2015
Nearly 4 in 10 smartphone users tap into social media while driving, according to a new survey commissioned by AT&T.

The biggest draw was Facebook. Addiction was cited as a common reason.

“For the sake of you and those around you, please keep your eyes on the road, not on your phone,” said Lori Lee, AT&T's global marketing officer.

Of the 10 percent of drivers who tweet while driving, about one-third said they do it “all the time.”

In 2012, more than 3,300 people were killed and 421,000 injured in auto accidents because of distracted driving, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The survey comes hot on the bumper of an annual Expedia report that named texting while driving as the number one cause of road rage. That may be because seven in 10 people said they use their smartphones while driving.

Texting is still the most common smartphone driving activity, but that’s just the first in a long newsfeed of dumb ideas:

• Text (61 percent)

• Email (33 percent)

• Surf the net (28 percent)

• Facebook (27 percent)

• Snap a selfie/photo (17 percent)

• Twitter (14 percent)

• Instagram (14 percent)

• Shoot a video (12 percent)

• Snapchat (11 percent)

• Video chat (10 percent)

The national survey was conducted by Braun Research and polled more than 2,000 who own a smartphone and drive at least once per day.

If you’re reading this while driving. Put it down. Now.

http://www.scrippsmedia.com/fox4now/now-trending/Study-4-in-10-use-social-media-while-driving-304607371.html

Put the Phone Down While Driving… Or it Could Cost You

     The National Safety Council’s 2014 Injury and Fatality Report found that the use of cell phones causes 26% of the nation’s car accidents.  That is one in four accidents!  As a Southwest Florida personal injury attorney representing those injured in motor vehicle accidents I have certainly seen an increase in accidents resulting from cell phone usage.  

   In an attempt to deter Florida drivers from utilizing a cell phone while driving, the Florida legislature, in 2013, implemented the Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law (Florida Statute 316.305).  Florida’s ban on texting and driving makes it unlawful to operate a motor vehicle while entering information or reading data on a wireless communication device.  The penalty is a noncriminal traffic infraction.  With the apparent rise in cell phone related motor vehicle accidents there is a push within the 2015 Florida legislative session to strengthen the Texting While Driving Law.  Specifically, Rep. Richard Stark (D-Weston) (HB1) and Sen. Thad Altman (R-Rockledge) (SB0192) introduced bills that would make the texting while driving violations a primary offense, meaning that violations of the statute could serve as means for law enforcement to stop a motor vehicle.  The law, in its current state, makes violations a secondary offense, which means that the traffic stop must stem from some other traffic violation.

     In addition to aforementioned legislative activity, Florida Courts have recognized the inherent dangers in utilizing a cell phone while driving.  Specifically, courts throughout the state, including Lee County and Collier County, are permitting motor vehicle accident victims to assert claims for punitive damages where there is evidence that the accident-causing party was utilizing a cell phone or texting at the time of the motor vehicle accident. Recently, a Lee County Circuit Judge, in granting an accident victims request to make a claim for punitive damages, held that a jury could reasonably conclude that cell phone usage results in impairments similar to those caused by operating motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.  These judicial rulings allow for additional avenues of recovery in the form of punitive damages for victims of motor vehicle accidents.  Punitive damages (Florida Statute 768.72) are monetary damages intended to deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit (i.e. texting while driving).  Thus, those injured in cell phone related motor vehicle accidents may be able to claim punitive damages in addition to the standard monetary damages of medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost wages. 

     It is time to put the cell phone down while driving.  No text message is so urgent that it must be sent while your vehicle is in motion.  If you are the unfortunate victim of a motor vehicle accident involving cell phone usage, give Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice, and Purtz, P.A. a call for a free consultation.  We represent individuals injured in motor vehicle accidents throughout Southwest Florida.  We have locations in Fort Myers (two offices to better serve you), Lehigh Acres, Cape Coral, Naples, and Port Charlotte.

By: Zachary M. Gill, Partner, Goldstein, Buckley, Cechman, Rice & Purtz, P.A.

Brutally Honest: How to keep your teens from texting and driving

(CNN) -- Whenever I think about how we can stop teens from texting and driving, I think back to an interview I did with the Dunn family of Roxbury, New Jersey.

Barb Dunn was doing everything right. She talked to her then 16-year-old son Daniel repeatedly about the dangers of texting and driving and she rode with him as he drove to and from school while he had his learner's permit.

But when I asked Daniel if he would ever text and drive, his answer stunned his parents -- and me.

"Probably," he said, although he added he didn't think he would text while "driving on the highway."

When his shocked mother pressed him about whether he would text while the car was moving, he said, "No, probably not."

But he did say it would likely take a "pretty good scare" to convince him never to do it.

The incident speaks volumes about how no matter how much we talk to our teens about the dangers of texting behind the wheel, the temptation might still be too great. After all, texting to them is about as natural as talking on the telephone for hours was for those of us who grew up in the '70s and '80s.

The numbers show what an uphill climb we, as parents, have ahead of us. Fifty-five percent of young-adult drivers, in a survey by Online Schools, said it was easy to text and drive, while 34% of teens said they have texted while behind the wheel.

Forty-eight percent of young drivers in the survey also said they had seen their parents drive while talking on a cell phone. (Talking on a cell phone, even hands free, results in a slower reaction time than if you were driving at or above the legal blood alcohol limit, according to the National Safety Council.)

And, 15% of young drivers have seen their parents text while driving, according to the advocacy group textinganddrivingsafety.com.

The stakes couldn't be higher. Every day in the United States, more than nine people are killed and more than a thousand people are injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency says distracted driving includes activities such as talking on a cell phone, texting and eating.

Currently, 44 states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands make it illegal to text and drive, reports the Governors Highway Safety Association.

So, parents, here's where we have a role to play. Our kids watch everything we do, and so if we are going to talk on the phone while driving -- or if we dare to text and drive -- why wouldn't they think it's OK to do it as well?

Janeane Davis, a suburban Philadelphia mom of four, said she has a definite policy when it comes to using the phone while driving. She will never do it.

"I have taught my children by word and example that when you drive, you drive -- no talking on the phone, no texting, no checking email and social media statuses," said Davis, founder of the blog Janeane's World.

She leaves her phone in her purse and on the floor behind her seat with the ringer off until she reaches her destination.

"My children have seen me tell friends who tried to text while driving to let me out of the car if they wanted to do that," said Davis. "Not using the phone while driving is a golden rule, like always using a seat belt."

Janis Brett Elspas, also a mother of four, said she may be one of the few drivers out there of any age who has never checked Facebook or email while behind the wheel. For her, it's personal.

Friends of hers have been killed by people who were texting and driving, she said.

"On top of that, 10 years ago, I was rear-ended by a guy on his smartphone and can still picture my amazement when he got out of his car to survey the damage he caused without even removing the cell phone from his ear to stop the conversation he was having," said Elspas, founder of Mommy Blog Expert.

Her eldest son, who is in his first year of driving, has never texted while driving to her knowledge, she said. And her triplets, who will get their learning permits shortly, also know her "staunch position on texting and driving."

"So, modeling the right behavior for my children, I believe, worked for me," she said. "To text or do anything on your smartphone or tablet in front of your children while driving tells them that it's OK to do it when they begin to drive."

Having our kids listen to survivors' stories can also go a long way.

Liz Marks describes herself as a popular high school girl who was addicted to her smartphone and was looking forward to graduation, the prom and her 18th birthday.

"Everything in my life was heading in the right direction until it all changed by simply reading one message," said Marks on "The Lauren Galley Show" on blogtalk radio. The text Liz was reading was from her mom.

Marks suffered a car accident that left her with a severe brain injury. She had to relearn how to walk, talk, read and write. She's now blind in one eye, cannot smell, cannot hear very well and can't create tears.

"My life restarted all over again just because of that one simple text message I was reading," she said.

Marks said she ignored the warnings about texting and driving because everyone else her age was doing it so she thought it was OK. She said teens also mirror what they see around them.

"Parents are doing it or adults and then young people see that and they think that 'Oh they're doing it, so it's OK for me to do it too,' " said Marks on "The Lauren Galley Show."

By texting and driving as parents, we are doing a tremendous disservice to our kids, said Diana Graber, co-founder of the digital literacy site CyberWise.org,

"We're creating this culture where we disconnect from our phones even when we are transporting children around, and I think that's really where it happens. It trickles down from the top," said Graber, who appeared on the radio show with Liz Marks.

Graber, who also teaches "cybercivics" to middle school students in Aliso Viejo, California, admits she's personally been guilty of getting distracted by a text or tweet.

"You hear that sound and you feel like you have to respond to it immediately," she said.

"We have to remember that every time we do that, there's a child watching. Maybe it's a child that's not even watching yet but they're going to remember that that's a behavior that we have condoned."

What do you think parents can do to keep their children safe behind the wheel? Share your thoughts with Kelly Wallace on Twitter or CNN Living on Facebook.

The-CNN-Wire: By Kelly Wallace

Editor's note: Kelly Wallace is CNN's digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family, career and life. Read her other columns and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter.

™ & © 2015 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

Brutally Honest: How to keep your teens from testing and driving

You Will Never Text and Drive After This... We Promise!

You Will Never Text and Drive After This... We Promise!

 

The Text A Mom Sent Her Daughter That Destroyed Her Life

The Text a Mom Sent Her Daughter That Destroyed Her Life

Woman posts 'happy' status while driving, dies in car accident

Texting driver hits cyclist, says 'I don't care'

The Department Of Transportation Made A Short PSA About Teens Who Text While Driving And It’s Brutal

One Text or Call could Wreck it All

Even the most LOL-worthy text message is not worth risking your life to read while driving. That's the message of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, or as you may know it, April.
The U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) catchy slogan for its third annual campaign: "One Text or Call could Wreck it All."

In 2009, distracted driving killed nearly 5,500 people and injured almost half-a-million. Another disturbing stat: 16% of all fatal crashes that same year involved distracted driving.

But the campaign does have some hopeful statistics to share. Now that California's ban on texting and talking on a handheld cellphone while driving has been in effect for two years, road fatalities have fallen 22%.

Other states are catching up. In West Virginia, a law prohibiting texting and using a handheld phone while driving will go into effect July 2012. West Virgina will be the 10th state to outlaw texting and handheld devices while driving, not counting Washington DC, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

The DOT still has a lot of work to do to lower the incidences of car accidents caused by distracted drivers. A study by researchers at the University of Utah shows using a cellphone while driving — whether it's handheld or hands-free device — delays a driver's reactions the same as having a blood alcohol level at the legal limit of .08%.

But cellphones are just the first frontier in distracted driving. The DOT is continuing to conduct research about whether or not GPS devices and hands-free headsets distract drivers by affecting cognitive abilities, Ray LaHood, secretary of transportation for the DOT, says in this YouTube video.

During one pilot program in 2010 conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — called "Phone in One Hand, Ticket in the Other" — law enforcement witnessed a decrease in cellphone use while driving. The program was enforced in four waves over the course of a one-year span in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York.

In total, nearly 20,000 tickets or citations were issued.

The results were impressive. In Syracuse, handheld cellphone use while driving decreased by one-third. In Hartford — where the instance of driving while using a cellphone was unusually high — there was a 57 percent decrease in handheld cellphone use while driving and a nearly three-quarter drop in texting while driving.

To drive home the point, the DOT also hosts a series of video on its YouTube called, "Faces of Distracted Driving." Each of the videos highlight one story of fatalities caused by distracted driving. AT&T presented a similar campaign in 2010 with a 10-minute documentary called, "The Last Text," which has nearly three million views to-date.

But not all countries are tackling the driving and cellphone use issue the same way. The Swedish National Road and Transport Institute recently said texting or using a handheld phone while driving is "harmless."

The organization said there are no official statistics of how many car accidents are caused by distracted drivers in Sweden, but there are numerous studies that show driver focus is equally impaired whether drivers are using a headset or a phone. The biggest difference between the two was that drivers using headsets were more confident.

In the U.S. at least it seems drivers and car companies alike have welcomed the idea of using hands free devices to communicate while driving. In-car technology such as Ford Sync allows driver to have their text messages read aloud to them or adjust music via voice control.
But such technology walks the line between convenient and distracting. Plus, it's facing opposition by the DOT.

What, if any, legislation would you support that restricts drivers' use of cellphones or other devices while operating a vehicle? Sound off in the comments.

Ready to Put Down The Phone?

Texting and Driving Statistics

Texting while driving is a growing trend, and a national epidemic, quickly becoming one of the country's top killers. Drivers assume they can handle texting while driving and remain safe, but the numbers don't lie.

Texting While Driving Causes:

1. 1,600,000 accidents per year - National Safety Council
2. 330,000 injuries per year - Harvard Center for Risk Analysis Study
3. 11 teen deaths EVERY DAY - Ins. Institute for Hwy Safety Fatality Facts
4. Nearly 25% of ALL car accidents

 Texting While Driving Is: 

1. About 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving intoxicated
2. Th same as driving after 4 beers - National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
3. The number one driving distraction reported by teen drivers

Texting While Driving:

1. Makes you 23x more likely to crash - National Hwy Transportation Safety Admin.
2. Is the same as driving blind for 5 seconds at a time - VA. Tech Transportation Institure
3. Takes place by 800,00 drivers at any given time across the country
4. Slows your brake reaction speed by 18% - HumanFactors & Ergonomics Society
5. Leads to a 400% increase with eyes off the road