You are driving home from work. You're at a stoplight and suddenly you hear that "bing" your mobile telephone makes when you've received a text message or an e-mail. The temptation wells up inside of you to take a glance at your mobile device to see if that message is important. Your internal logic appears to be sound: "I am at a stoplight. I'm not moving. I'll take a quick peek before the traffic starts to move." Unfortunately, this dangerous scenario occurs daily on our roadways, and more often than not what is actually occurring is that drivers don't listen to the warning in their head and are using their mobile devices when actually moving. Obviously this can lead to crashes, property damage, injuries, and death. This form of driver distraction may not seem that foreign to us as emergency physicians because we ourselves are repeatedly tempted to answer that "bing." What we should remember is all the times we had to break bad news to some loving parents about their son's or daughter's death in a motor vehicle crash. (Author/publisher)
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