Tuesday, May 4, 2010

"No Phone Zone" pledge by Oprah 101





Oprah urged "Early Show" co-anchors Rodriguez and Harry Smith to sign her "No Phone Zone" pledge. The pledge has three options: "I will not text while driving," "I will not text while driving and will use only handsfree calling if I need to speak on the phone while I am driving," and "I will not text or use my phone while I am driving. If I need to use my phone, I will pull over to a secure location." 



Oprah replied, "It is doubly dangerous. There are many studies that show that it is compared to double the alcohol level when you are texting and driving at the same time. It's like being doubly drunk." 

Oprah said what drew her to this issue was a story she did for her show back in January. 

She explained, "(It was about) a young mother who was on the cell phone on the way home, gets to her street, realizes something has happened on the street, all the police, ambulances, cars, and says to her father -- she was talking to her father on the phone -- 'I've got to hang up. Something's happened on my street,' and my goodness..." It was the woman's daughter, who was almost home, had been struck down by a woman on her cell phone. 

"It was something about that story. You know, there are some stories that hit a nerve with us, and it was something about the 15 bike pedals from the front door -- we all know what that means -- everyone has been on a bicycle, everyone knows how far 15 pedals are, and so, I thought, 'This doesn't have to happen."

What do you think of Oprah's "No Phone Zone" pledge?  We think it is pretty admirable of her to put this out considering there are a lot of people out there who participate in such dangerous activity.  28% of accidents are caused by texting or talking on the phone while driving.  We get so often caught up in our own lives that we forget about what is going on around us and often become disconnected with the world around us.  This leads to dangerous behavior because we forget some very basic knowledge such as keeping our eyes on the road or looking both ways before crossing the street.

No comments:

Post a Comment