Is it worth it?

Being 5, 10 or even 15 minutes late to work or that meeting is not going to

kill you (hopefully). We live in a busy world with cars, cell phones, appointments and
distractions of all kinds. Our lives can change in an instant. We could be walking
across the street, along the sidewalk or even just at the park when disaster strikes.
Im not talking about natural disasters like tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes or
volcanos or anything like that Im talking about those things that are in our
everyday life. The cars, trucks and SUVs are what Im hoping to address.
According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety more than half of all traffic
fatalities are caused by aggressive driving. Aggressive driving includes racing,
tailgating, failing to observe signs and regulations, seeking confrontation with other
drivers. Think about yourself and those around you for a minute. How many times in
the last month have you read a text, drove a little drowsy, driven under the
influence of drugs or alcohol, sped 10mph over the speed limit (not just on the
freeway), ran a red light or sped up to get through a yellow light?
Now just going over some of the penalties for such aggressive driving, texting
while driving (even if you are just caught texting and do not cause an accident or
incident) the fine in Utah is $750 with up to 1 year in prison according to
DrivingLaws.org. Attorney Rich Stim continues with if there is injury or death from
texting and driving (in Utah) will imply a $10,000 fine and up to 15 years in prison
and who wants that?
Taken from the How Much Does Your Stated Fine for Texting and Driving?
article by Benjy Hansen-Bundy and Tasneem Raja is the diagram given showing the
fines for texting and driving in each state. From the same article was given the

statistics of texting while driving is 23 times more likely to crash. These were given
from a toll taken in 2011.

In the state of Utah alone there were, according to National Highway Traffic
Safety (NHTS) in 2013, aggressive driving and speeding caused 81 fatalities, 3,225
injuries and 11,231 crashes. From the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Highway
Loss Data Institute there were 30,057 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the United States in

2013 in which 32,719 deaths occurred. Thats 2,726.58 deaths a month, 681.65 deaths per
week, 97.38 deaths per day, 4.06 deaths an hour and 1.01 deaths every 15 minutes.
Distracted driving, speeding, drunk driving, reckless driving, running a red light and
tailgating are just the beginning of what is going on out on the roads that are leading causes
of accidents, big or small, on the road. From NHTS shows that 1 in 5 Americans have been in
a serious accident and 1 in 3 have known someone who has died from an auto accident.