DON’T TEXT !!!!!!!   DRIVE AND ARRIVE ALIVE

The upcoming holidays and vacation periods will increase the danger of exposure to hazardous driving habits and careless disobedience of the rules of the road.  We all make mistakes and errors in driving from time to time.  I am personally making a commitment to stop texting while driving, and I hope that my kids and family and friends will do the same.  This holiday weekend,  wait until you arrive alive, or stop at the gas station, or just find a safe scenic place, (non- dry-grassy/non-fire hazard area), to pull over and cool the tires and engine to return your calls.  Below is my ARRIVE ALIVE CONTRACT that I have drafted for my family that I am asking my kids to sign   memorializing our agreement not to text while driving.  Mine may be a little more specific and burdensome, or maybe less so than one you might like to enter with your family.  Mine is strict about texting, but is made with the reality that at times I will, and my kids will have a phone call. The National Safety Council  provides a different type and broader discussion of understanding about a Distracted Driver Family Contract at: https://www.nsc.org/DistractedDrivingDocuments/Hands-Free-Driving-Family-Contract.pdf

However, I am going to pass this information and video along to my kids, who are now young adults, to read these statistics and pass this with our ARRIVE ALIVE CONTRACT on to their friends.The National Safety Council ( www.nsc.org ) in 2011 quoted these statistics in 2010, and the numbers have been on the rise since then, announced that “it estimates at least 28% of all traffic crashes – or at least 1.6 million crashes each year – involve drivers using cell phones and texting. NSC estimates that 1.4 million crashes each year involve drivers using cell phones and a minimum of 200,000 additional crashes each year involve drivers who are texting. The announcement came on the one-year anniversary of NSC’s call for a ban on all cell phone use and texting while driving.”           https://www.nsc.org/Pages/NSCestimates16millioncrashescausedbydriversusingcellphonesandtexting.aspx 
      “We now know that at least 1.6 million crashes involve drivers using cell phones and texting,” said Janet Froetscher, president & CEO of the National Safety Council. “We know that cell phone use is a very risky distraction and texting is even higher risk. We now know that cell phone use is a factor in many more crashes than texting. The main reason is that millions more drivers use cell phones than text,” she said. “That is why we need to address both texting and cell phone use on our roads.”

The CDC, Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, has stated that:  “Each day in the United States, more than 9 people are killed and more than 1,060 people are injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver.1 Distracted driving is driving while doing another activity that takes your attention away from driving. Distracted driving can increase the chance of a motor vehicle crash.”  
    As can be imagined texting is listed as  a  major cause of such distraction, but there are others.  https://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Distracted_Driving/
The statistics are indicating however that it may be as much as, or more of a cause of highway crashes than intoxication.
“Texting while driving is now the leading cause of death among teenagers – surpassing drinking and driving, according to a study by Cohen Children’s Medical Center.”
 https://safety.trw.com/texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-us-teen-deaths/0710/The National Safety Council encourages all Americans to share its website, and information it provides, and the data that it gathers, and the studies that it references, and the tools it provides to help educate our families and communities to think about and engage in a dialogue to save lives and injuries.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration emphasizes the need to think about all of the activity that contributes to distracted driving. So, think about it, and be safe on the highway this coming holiday weekend.

–  Tim Smith

Feel free to use my form and adapt it for your family and the rules to which you can commit, accordingly.

                                               ARRIVE ALIVE CONTRACT

This Contract by and between the parties, _______________________,(hereinafter referred to as son/brother), and ______________________(hereinafter referred to as son/brother), ___________________________ (hereinafter referred to as daughter/sister), and ___________________________(hereinafter referred to as Dad) is entered on ______________, 2022.  In exchange for the consideration of the mutual promises by, and commitments of, the other parties, and mutual desire for each other party to ARRIVE ALIVE, and to make mutual efforts to reach their destination safely, and without harm to the parties, their passengers, and other drivers and families on the roadway, the parties as identified above, in exchange for such commitment, enter this as a binding agreement.  It is therefore agreed that:

           Sons/brothers, and daughter/sister, and Dad, hereby promise to refrain from using their cell phone while driving.  Sons/brothers, and daughter/sister, and Dad, hereby promise to CEASE ALL TEXTING while driving, and that each party shall promise to wait until they arrive, or pit stop, or are able to safely pullover to stop, or require a passenger to perform texting, emailing, map questing, or respond to messages, or information searches. Each party promises that no call will be made or accepted while driving in heavy traffic, and to input an alternate preprogrammed voice greeting that advises incoming callers that the party is driving, and the call will be checked or the call returned, when not driving, at the next stop, and to wait to return all calls, and that no calls will be made or accepted until the next pit stop.

It is hereby acknowledged that each party is making this binding commitment because of the other parties’ love, and need for the safety, of the  the other parties, their passengers, and other families’ needs and love for one another.  This contract shall continue in effect for a period of one year from the date of its execution and shall automatically renew, and be renewed, and continue in effect for successive one year terms, until the party dies or no longer drives, and in such event it shall continue in effect as binding on the remaining parties as long as they continue to drive.

SIGNED this ___ day of ______________, 2022.

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