Situation:
Fatal car crash. Smartphone found in hand/near hand of driver.
News Story:
Susan Dipstick, 20, of West Splotsville, died today at 17:54 when her vehicle rear-ended a semi on Route 47 E.
In her hand was her phone.
Here are the SMS messages she sent and received in the 5 minutes prior to her death:
17:51 From {redacted 01} OMG! Did you see the new…
17:51 Sent to {redacted 01} Yes!..
.
.
.
17:54 Sent to {redacted 03} As soon as I get// interrupted by accident
[/news story]
Bonus if they can capture the Earth-Shattering message she was composing!
Wacha think?
If there is any indication of Texting contributing to a death, I say: Get it out there!
Screw “Privacy” - she’s dead. She is not going to be harmed by the publication.
If necessary, add “Agrees to postmortem publication of final 300 seconds of SMS activity” to “Agrees to Sobriety Check” as condition of license.
Maybe, just maybe, somebody will see the insanity of dying because of an inane conversation.
Hell, I remember the “Blood on the Highway” 16mm flicks in Driver’s Ed.
Didn’t have much of an impact on the ‘kids + alcohol + driving’ situation.
It’s nice that someone has put together a new flick on the ‘people + texting + driving’ problem. I fully expect it to have exactly the same level of effect as the BotH flicks had in the 60’s.
I want this in the goddamned News. Instead of the video of the scene, have a still with the “Last Text” scrolling over it.
If we have that most blessed of situation wherein both of the involved vehicles were DWT, use split-screen and roll both “so critical it must be done NOW” conversations.
I had thought texting (I’ve never even held a device capable of it) was on the level of “fiddle with radio” or “read newspaper” or maybe “apply cosmetics” distraction,
Apparently, I underestimated.
We again have a race between “technology creating a problem” (DWT) and “technology solving problem” (autonomous cars*).
I’ve seen a PSA with a still shot of an incomplete text message and a voice-over of a young man saying something like “This is the last text I wrote. I’m now paralyzed below the neck.”