Don’t Blink

Don’t blink….time goes quickly. Don’t blink…your life can completely change. Dec 15, 2020.

The phone call…the grim faces of the first responders…my aunt crying…watching my cousin motionless, expressionless, unresponsive on the stretcher. A day my family will never forget. Don’t blink…all of our lives changed.

Our moms and our nana reminded, preached and threatened almost every time that we got into the car – “Wear your seatbelt, Stay off your phone, Pay attention”. Yeah yeah we would respond. Until that day. We don’t know if Shauntaye was distracted by her dogs in the front seat or if she was texting while driving but she did not yield for a truck and slammed directly into it. Her mom, my aunt, was following behind and watched the car spin and spin and spin. CPR was performed in the car. They regained her heartbeat. The worst months of our lives ensued.

Shauntaye was pregnant. The baby was delivered via c-section that night. Shauntaye was in a coma for weeks. The accident occurred during the pandemic. We were allowed to come to the ICU to say good-bye and then only my mom and my aunt and uncle were able to visit. And then by some miracle, Shauntaye began to respond to commands. It was day to day, sometimes hour to hour but she lived.

She and my aunt went to Craig Hospital to rehab from the traumatic brain injury. All of our lives were put on hold. Shauntaye could not be the mother she had always dreamed of being. My uncle became a single parent. My mom spent every single evening at the NICU with the baby. We were all scared and sad. Six months after the accident, Shauntaye was able to come home.

Thankfully, baby Oaklynn is a normal toddler. A little miracle. Shauntaye has done amazing. She remembers all of us and many things from the past. Her speech is still difficult to understand and she walks with a walker. She is not independent. She does not get to live the same life that other young people do in their 20’s. And she never will.

And this didn’t have to happen. Distracted driving changed our lives. It’s real. It’s terrible. We live this every day. No one is immune. There is NO need to text or check your phone or have your dogs sitting on your lap while driving.

Research shows that the greatest number of accidents due to distracted driving and cell phones occurs among young drivers. This is not surprising. This population eats and sleeps with their phones…literally. Young people think this will never happen to them. I am here to tell you they are wrong. It can happen to anyone.

Education. Nagging. Whatever you want to call it. We need to keep talking about the dangers, keep reminding our friends and our family to be safe and be conscious of this every time we drive. Every single time. Talking and educating will help to get teens and everyone to remember the dangers and decrease driving fatalities and accidents. Accidents are as devastating as fatalities.

It takes little effort to NOT be distracted. Keep your phone in the cupholder and have your friend check it if you get a text. Silence your phone when you’re driving so that you are not tempted to check it. Install a device that silences the phone while the engine is running. Nothing is so urgent that it can’t wait the 15 minutes it will take you to get to your destination. Remind adults that they should not drive distracted. Don’t have too many people in the car with you. More passengers = more noise = more distraction. Don’t eat while you are driving. Make a commitment to keep yourself and your passengers safe and not drive distracted!

Teens are invincible – or so they think. What if we had young people that had been involved in accidents made tiktoks with their story and their pictures? Real life people on a platform that teens are familiar with. Graphic. Dramatic. Impactful.

I think teens would watch and hopefully remember when they got behind the wheel. Every day, I lead by example. I never look at my phone when driving. I remind my friends. If I need to adjust my music or my seat, I pull over. I am obviously more cognizant of the consequences of distracted driving so it is simple for me to focus on my driving. I tell Shauntaye’s story to anyone that will listen and hope that at least one person takes distracted driving seriously because of it.

Don’t blink…