I want to share a concern of mine, as a parent, that far outweighs my concerns about school shootings. Tomorrow is the March for Our Lives, and since the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, the movement has been about the safety and saving the lives of children at schools. Before I continue, I want to make one thing clear: all deaths in school shootings are tragic losses of life. But, why is it only when a child loses a life due to a gun at a school does children’s safety and saving children’s lives suddenly become the focus of attention? Children are killed every day in many different ways, but the only time there seems to be a push to stop it is when a gun is used to kill another child at a school. Many of the other deaths can be prevented, sometimes in a very easy manner.
My goal today is to try to draw attention away from the ongoing gun debate and towards what should be a much easier way to save the lives of children that doesn’t require arguments over the Constitution of the United States or gun control. Probably every single person reading this has a smartphone. Most of you are probably reading this on your smartphone. Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, mine included. Here are some numbers for you to think about:
56 – Deaths of children in school shootings from Sandy Hook (December 14, 2012) to present (March 23, 2018)
3,477 – Deaths from accidents involving a distracted driver in 2015
3,450 – Deaths from accidents involving a distracted driver in 2016
290 – Teen (15-19) distracted drivers involved in a fatal car accident in 2015
322 – Total deaths in accidents where the driver was a distracted teen in 2015
194 – Teen deaths in accidents where the driver was a distracted teen in 2015
303 – Teen (15-19) distracted drivers involved in a fatal car accident in 2016
229 – Total deaths in accidents where the driver was a distracted teen in 2016
174 – Teen deaths in accidents where the driver was a distracted teen in 2016
As a parent, one of the things that bothers me the most when I’m out driving is seeing people driving their cars with their phones in their faces. It is likely that many of you reading this get distracted while driving. Many of you may use your phones while driving. Some distractions are unavoidable, mainly children and pets, but pets, like children, should be kept out of the driver’s seat when the car is moving. Many other distractions are completely avoidable. While the statistics aren’t broken down by specific distractions, the main growing culprit of these deaths is cell phone use.
Why is there no outrage about innocent lives being lost because someone is carelessly on their phone while driving and not paying attention to the 1,500-5,000-pound machine they are in control of? Why isn’t there a march against Apple, Google, and all the major cell phone makers in our country?
A simple solution: It would be incredibly easy for phone manufacturers or cell phone providers to have a feature on cell phones to lock or restrict functionality as soon as the phone was moving over a certain speed (maybe 10-15 mph). That is it, that’s all it would take to keep phones out of people’s faces on the roads.
If children’s lives are really that important, then why is there no march to try to save many of the 368 teens killed by teen distracted drivers in 2015 and 2016 due to distracted driving? Or 6,927 total lives lost in 2015 and 2016 due to distracted driving? Why aren’t the students marching to not text and drive or to not be on their phones and drive when those cause many more deaths than the school shootings they are marching to advocate for further gun control?
Why? Because that would inconvenience people. Because it would restrict their ability to communicate with others through their phones when they are in a car. People want to play with their phones while they are driving, and they will ‘never’ be the one that gets in an accident when looking at their phone.