"But that won't happen to me"

I am not a fan of the "scared straight" method of trying to get people to alter their behavior, but, these are powerful stories about real people and the dreadful results of their misunderstanding of their responsibility to themselves and others. To quote a Jethro Tull song, "I may make you feel, but I can't make you think." In the case of the video below, certainly got me on both.

I wonder how many drivers in Rhode Island are aware that it is illegal to send, read or write text messages while driving. How many police officers take it seriously themselves to enforce the law every time they see it violated? According to a recent AP story, 185 tickets for texting while driving were issued in the first year that the law was in effect. I wonder how many actually paid the $85 fine, or went to traffic court and had the infraction dropped. 11 towns had no citations, and the highest in a single town was JOhnston at 11. The dollar figures given in the article, seem to indicate that the average fine is under $60. So far as I know, no one has been killed or injured directly because of texting in that year, but I'm certainly not an expert.

The following 10-minute PSA video is quite moving.