A Deadly Habit.

      "A Deadly Wandering" by Matt Richtel is a true story that I recently listened to as one of the Audio books that I regularly go to sleep to, instead of taking sleeping pills.  I find that many audio books are quite soporific and lull me gently to sleep.  This one kept me awake. It dealt with a phenomenon  that I learned was 'Distracted Driving'.  This particular book dealt with a horrible disaster that took the lives of two men in the prime of their lives and almost destroyed the life a decent young man who initially didn't even realize the role that texting while he was driving played in causing the catastrophe.  If you chose to read the book, what I have told you won't spoil it for you.  This caused me to investigate that phenomenon and I was surprised by some of the things I discovered.  Distracted driving is defined as impaired driving  as  drivers' judgement is compromised when they are not fully focused on the road.  The list of the distractions are many, some obviously much worse than others.  Texting is probably the worst of these activities but there are many others.    The ubiquitous GPS  on every windscreen or dash, cell phone, maps, eating, drinking. applying make-up and even reading can all be powerful distractions.    Texting, takes the cake, driving while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  They report that sending or receiving a text, take the driver's eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent, when traveling at 55 miles per hour, of driving the length of an entire football field while blindfolded.  Not many folks would choose to do that!
   Texting in cars and trucks causes over 3000 deaths and 330,000 injuries per year in the U.S. according to a Harvard Center for risk analysis study.
   Fines, license suspension and dangerous driving charges may result.  So can sudden death.