Driving a Lethal Weapon


His parents never knew, and if they had, perhaps life would have turned out differently for my teenage boyfriend. He drove an El Camino—a semi-sporty car that had a bench seat in front and a truck bed for a backend. His folks owned property along the bay—and to beat the summer heat, we’d go there often. It was a rural, tree-lined road, winding and narrow in many places.

With the windows rolled down and the radio blaring, he liked the rush of freedom while racing that rural road. We both were oblivious to the danger he was creating for us or anyone else on the road. It was like nothing could possibly go wrong. And nothing did then. 


After he graduated from high school, life took us separate ways. I didn’t hear any more about him until my dad called to tell me that my old boyfriend had been killed in a single car accident, along a rural road. Speeding was determined to be the cause. I felt such sadness for his family.




While speeding contributes to the cause of most accident-related fatalities, it is distracted driving that is the most common cause of road accidents. 


Teenage drivers (ages 16-17) have the highest accident rate—as well as causing the accidental death of others. Teens 16-19 have a fatal accident rate per mile that is nearly three times that for drivers that are older than 20. 


But it’s not just teens. Plenty of aggressive drivers are on the roads making life dangerous for the rest of us.  And cell phones are the most distracting nuisance in our cars.



But here’s an idea: Let’s use that technology to save lives. Parents can see how their teens are driving with a real-time GPS tracker installed in the car. For a small monthly charge, it offers a wide range of car monitoring—from speeding and hard braking, to tracking locations. There are even devises that can block the driver’s favorite phone apps.


Until self-driving cars are the norm, could monitoring drivers help? I don’t know, but there are far too many funerals for precious lives that have been lost in accidents that shouldn’t have happened.


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