A Mother’s Plea To Remain Safe On The Road

Parents of teens please feel free to share this funny video clip of a serious and timely object lesson…

While Memorial Day Weekend is a time for remembering our fallen, it also is widely known as a time for friends & family gatherings, fun, drinking, partying and these plans often entail travel. Sheriff Greg Sanchez joined up with some of our on-air personalities to demonstrate the effects  only a small quantity of alcohol can have on our coordination and therefore severely endanger and impair our driving ability.

As a young reporter, I was deeply impressed with some life lessons while having to stand at the feet of people already dead or dying and snapping away my camera. I actually felt nauseated and guilt-ridden in carrying out this gruesome assignment in earlier times, as I was not yet calloused to the inevitable deadening of emotions after years of trauma.  The reporter who I accompanied to my first accident scene was chatting on the way,  explaining how few people actually comprehend that taking your eyes away from the road or losing concentration for only 2-3 seconds can result in fatalities, yours or that of others,  and sadly, it often does. It didn’t take long working for the newspaper to be convinced that he was right.  And that was BEFORE cell phones OR texting which takes it to a new and paramount level, and it’s NOT a pretty picture!!

Even before that time, I experienced my own personal share of accidents including a head on with a hit-and-run drunk driver who topped a hill on our side of the road. We were fortunate;  however, the accident seemed to be set in slow motion and all the things I had not yet had time to do in life strangely did flash through my thought process while being tossed about in mid-air.  I’ve striven to instill the seriousness of these issues into my son,  who is now a paramedic student, and I will continue to try to impart this message to others. So now along with the significant dangers of drinking and driving, we are presented with a different yet equally dangerous hurdle in overcoming the present day all-consuming passion for continuous social media, coupled with young people’s inherent sense of invincibility to boot (yes I can remember thinking that way before experiencing a few more of those near misses.)

Parents, educators, and otherwise all mature adults in general practice safe driving yourselves and help spread the message by imparting your wisdom, good parenting skills, and wise counsel. And friends and family, have a safe, healthy & happy Memorial Weekend while pondering the lessons at hand, and the sacrifices made by so many of our military that remember this weekend.

Whether you like it or not ... You are in my prayers this weekend and always.