Accidental Death | Cell Phone

The Birmingham News Saturday on page 8B had a sad story, a person on a bicycle was hit and killed by a driver reaching for her cell phone. I recently wrote about this problem in my post accidents and cell phones. Kimberly Kelsey Drawbaugh in Scottsboro did not see Carlos Serrano Sr., an exercise enthusiast, who was killed by the impact. The police report said that she didn’t see him as she was reaching for her cell phone. Serrano was thrown 200 feet from the point of impact.

The newspaper article goes on in some detail about Mr. Serrano and his competitions in marathons and triathlons. (It’s ironic that the company he was the president of made the nylon fibers for air bags.)  He had a son and daughter who were both successful athletes. What a sad day for that family. Their lives have been changed forever. They have begun the journey of grief. The holidays will never be the same. Mr. Serrano won’t be at the weddings of his children nor will he be there to teach important life lessons to his future grandchildren.

Drivers talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content (legally drunk). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration researchers estimated that cell phone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents in 2002.

Each of us as human beings have a tendency to believe that “it” (something bad) won’t happen to me.  For the driver of the car reaching for their cell phone, they don’t think that they are taking someone’s life into their hands.  Think again and reconsider what you do when driving.

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