She couldn’t see it because she was sexting with her shirt over her face.
This happened near the A & M campus late Thursday night. A 19-year-old freshman was charged with driving while intoxicated, having an open bottle of wine in her vehicle, and being a minor in possession.
She told the police officer she was sending the selfie to her boyfriend. As she was driving.
Here’s a photo from the scene.
I guess girls just want to have fun.
But as I often have to ask, what is going on out there?
When I started driving in 1969 at the age of 15, I watched the road. There was nothing else to do. Life was so much simpler. We didn’t have cell phones and dashboard monitors so of course we didn’t dial numbers, text, or surf the net as we drove. We just had an AM radio. Oh, and my father watched me relentlessly. And people didn’t drink and use drugs as routinely as they do now.
But in my 36 years as a personal injury lawyer, I’ve often seen the same problems causing most of the automobile and truck wrecks here in Fort Worth – Dallas.
The talented Aggie managed to combine all three.
1. DWI’s
Driving while intoxicated collisions are out of control. Your chances of being in a crash caused by a drunk driver are substantial. Don’t believe me? It’s beyond tragic that every two minutes, a DWI causes some one to be injured, that every 51 minutes, a DWI causes someone to die, and that every day, a DWI causes 27 people to die.
I attended the Fort Worth Walk Like MADD on Saturday and it’s hard to stop thinking about it. I blogged about this moving event here.
This morning, I got a phone call from the man I mentioned who had just lost his wife. At least his own insurance company has offered the complete liability policy limits to him, as the intoxicated driver had no insurance of his own — a common occurrence.
2. Distracted Driving
Although 450 Texans died in distracted driving accidents last year, for political reasons Texas is one of only four states that still allow this dangerous practice.
But a driver takes his or her eyes off the road for about five seconds to text or read a message, which means that the car drives the length of a football field at 55 MPH while they are looking down at a cell phone screen.
Texting while driving clearly needs to be outlawed to make our streets safer.
3. Teenagers
You won’t be surprised that car wrecks are the leading cause of death for our teens. It is shocking that 2,679 American teenagers died and 123,000 were injured in automobile accidents in a recent year. Frequent DWI’s and non-stop cell phone use only add to the problem.
More Aggie jokes:
OK, it’s Friday so here are a few more to make you smile.
(Full disclosure: I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and of course hate Aggies.)
Did you hear about the Aggie who
- fell off his horse? The Wal-Mart manager had to come out and unplug it.
- drove his truck into the pond? His dog drowned as he was trying to lower his tailgate.
- was flying his small plane and saw he was low on fuel? He lightened his load by dumping his fuel.
Enjoy your weekend — and be careful driving with all the Halloween parties going on.