Distracted, Bloody Fool!

It’s almost as if James Bond was trying to warn us about distracted driving way back in 1957, when From Russia with Love was first published in hardcover.
“You bloody fool,” Bond exclaimed. “Why the hell can’t you take more care?”
Mr. Bond’s admonition holds special resonance on this April Fools Day, which also marks the kick-off of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Today alone, an estimated 9 people will be killed, and over 1,000 injured, in distracted driving crashes throughout the U.S.
Texting while driving, and other forms of distracted driving, are responsible for over 1,000,000 crashes, 400,000 injuries, and 3,000 fatalities in the U.S. each year. And the numbers have barely moved over the past several years.
In public opinion surveys, large majorities say that distracted driving is a serious problem. But, behind the wheel, millions of us continue to take foolish risks. We take our eyes off the road to look up a phone number or place a call…
Jay Winsten, Associate Dean and Director of the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Read the Op/Ed published April 1, 2015 in The Huffington Post

 

 

Read about Jay Winsten’s Massachusetts State House appearance on April 1 in the Lowell Sun article: “Atkins dials up support for hands-free cellphone use