Don’t drive distracted
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Motor vehicle fatalities are up 6 percent from 2015. Taking a pledge not to drive distracted is one way to improve road safety.
Bringing awareness to your family, friends, and community can be really helpful in saving lives. Every seven seconds someone is injured in a car crash; every 15 minutes someone is killed. It takes one-tenth of a second to get into a crash for having your mind or eyes off the road or taking your hands off the wheel.
Distracted driving causes thousands of deaths but is not the only cause. One-third of accidents are caused by intoxicated drivers; drowsy drivers are three times more likely to crash, and 64 percent of drugged drivers thought it was OK to get behind the wheel.
Put down your cellphone, keep your hands on the wheel, and focus on the road. Taking the pledge and spreading awareness through social media can help save lives. “To just drive for my own safety and for others with whom I share roads.”
It is really simple to spread awareness via social mediae. Don’t play into the statistics of a distracted driver. Let’s all take the pledge and vow to decrease the number of fatalities on the roads.
Roxanne Hernandez, Mission
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Today social media has become a social norm, the apps that are being use consistently, like Facebook, and Snapchat endanger the lives of our drivers because we use them while we are behind the wheel. Also texting and driving leads to increased distraction. Drivers are more likely to be involved in a car crash while on their phones, as opposed to driving while under the influence. If we choose to use our cellphone while operating a motor vehicle we are putting our lives and others at risk. Many people record themselves driving on Snapchat. A lot of people are doing it nowadays, which does not make it right. Using a phone while operating a motor vehicle kills, but will it stop? Today’s drivers need to think before we get behind the wheel.
Stefanie SanJuan, Mission
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I don’t have enough hands to count the amount of times I have encountered someone who was texting behind the wheel. In a situation where a vehicle would be swerving or driving too slow, I’d automatically assume they’re texting.
I have made it a habit to switch lanes and stay as far away as possible every time I spot a distracted driver. You can never be too sure how it might play out.
Most of these distracted drivers hold their phones up with no shame as they don’t care to even try to hide the fact that they are texting. They fail to realize that it is wrong, so they do it without logically thinking. With awareness, I hope more people are able to come to their senses about this problem as it is in no way acceptable or OK.
I’d like to end this letter on the same idea you concluded a recent Monitor editorial with: To encourage local law enforcement to act tougher on distracted drivers by issuing more tickets. Maybe then they’d think twice before they grab their phone and break the law.
No life is worth a text message, song, bite of food, makeup, etc. Let’s bring more awareness to distracted driving and lessen the number of accidents and deaths.
Arely Cavazos, Edinburg
Guns in America
Generally speaking, I would prefer to see many more letters to the editor rather than commentary and editorials in Sunday’s paper. This Sunday’s paper was an exception, however. Never before have I read a more logical unemotional explanation of how the NRA, the gun manufacturers and their more radical supporters have attempted to subvert the intent of the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court Rulings. Thanks Al Kauffman for espousing an accurate interpretation of both the amendment and court opinions in his piece “Constitution does not guarantee right to bear an AR-15.” This is an explanation that we, gun owners — who do not cherish and bow down in reverence to the mere presence of an AR-15 — can agree with 100 percent. After all folks it appears that since time has proven you can’t regulate peoples’ needs for the ego boost that military-style weapons seem to provide, we will have to limit possession to the truly defensive handguns and stun guns only.
Ned Sheats, Mission
