Everybody Does It…
Texting and driving is about
as dangerous as it can get. Your attention is off the road for more time than
it needs to be. In fact, your attention should never be off the road if you’re
driving.
Teens today are connected with
the world via social media. Their phones are as much a part of their lives as
were the pages most of their parents carried many years ago. The one major
problem with smart phones is how they can distract a driver at the moment when
they need to be concentrating the most.
There’s even a new phrase
being bandied about while doing this—Driving while intexicated.
Here are a few facts most
people don’t know.
At any given time, 660,000
drivers on the road are texting and driving. That five second text you just
sent while ignoring traffic around you… at 55 MPH, you just went the length of
a football field without looking at the road.
So not cool.
Eleven teenagers die every
day from texting and driving. Oh, you say, that’s not many. Well, think about
it this way, 4,015 teens die every year doing this dangerous activity. And if
that doesn’t rock your world, how about this…
If you cause an accident
while “driving while intexicated,” you will be charged criminally. Those charges
can range from a ticket that will cost a lot of money and probably the right to
drive with a valid license for a year to defending your indefensible actions in
court because you injured or killed someone.
Still think it’s okay to
text and drive?
Think about this. Like
drinking underage, driving while intexicated will ruin your life. Once caught,
you will have a criminal record. You’ll find the college you’ve had your heart
set on doesn’t want you any longer. The career you desired is now forever lost.
Your friends might say you’re cool, but they aren’t the ones having to pay the
consequences of responding to a text. That is, if you can respond. All your
plans for the future might end in a second that becomes what everyone will
remember about you the rest of their lives, because you won’t be around to tell
them how wrong you were.
In Where U @, Trea’s dad
causes problems with his inability to stop texting and driving. She lives
through the horror of seeing the consequences of what he does and must stand up
for what she believes in once everyone realizes who caused the accident. But
even that isn’t enough to stop the temptation of answering a text, until she
realizes what she almost did.
Blurb
Trea Jones has always known
the bitterness of bigotry and abject poverty. Her half-Cherokee daddy
disappeared thirteen years ago on the pretense of getting milk. Mama has done
nothing but mourn his loss, and she blames Trea for that. Now that she's
starting her senior year of high school, Trea hopes for something better, but
she doesn't hold out much hope.
Until …
She loosens up on some of
her rules. Her guy, Dave, proves to her that she is worthy of everything the
others have. The last day of classes prior to the winter break, she's ready to
share some stupendous news with Dave, but tragedy intervenes when her daddy
texts while driving a bus. Trea is left wondering if she can ever be free of a
curse that heaps a lot of bad luck on her whenever good things happen to her.
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