2018 Scholarship: Distracted Driving | Parnall Law Firm

Transcript:
"Interviewer:
Welcome back. Now the numbers illustrating the dangers of cell phone use while driving are startling. Get this, 1.6 million crashes each year, that's one out of every four accidents and it's six times more dangerous than driving drunk. But there is some good news to this. Local youth who help raise awareness of these dangerous with a well-written essay could get part of a $5,000 in scholarships that are being awarded by a local law firm. Very good news to hear. And here with all the great details on that amazing opportunity is local attorney Bert Parnall. Bert welcome.

Bert Parnall:
Thank you David. Thank you for having me.

Interviewer:
Definitely. And we want to start off by talking about how dangerous is this trend of distracted driving?

Bert Parnall:
Oh, terribly dangerous. With the rise of smart phones people get used to it and deaths and injuries are increasing year by year.

Interviewer:
And we have a stat here that we want to talk about is about every five seconds or about five seconds driving at 55 miles an hour and answering a text at that speed and at that rate I mean that that just increases the odds of how dangerous and how severe these crashes can be. Right?

Bert Parnall:
Yeah. The studies show that it takes an average of about five seconds to answer a text, five seconds at 50 miles an hour, that's enough time to drive the length of a football field.

Interviewer:
Wow. That is, I mean it's just crazy to think that you're taking your eyes off the road for just a mere second. And when you're sitting down in a stagnant environment you are going to be answering a text and people just take it for granted that okay time is not being affected. But when you're driving at 55 miles an hour that's something incredibly worse.

Bert Parnall:
Right.

Interviewer:
Now let's talk about your work as a MADD spokesperson.

Bert Parnall:
Sure. I have been a prosecutor for many years before I got into civil law and civil prosecution so I've been supporting Mothers Against Drunk Driving for a long time. We've worked closely together. I know what the criminal system is like so I've been able to to support, acknowledge, and encourage their efforts. And so, we work hand in hand to to help fight drunk driving.

Interviewer:
Yeah, and and again as that stat shows I mean the distracted driving by answering texts can be just as deadly if not worse than drunk driving.

Bert Parnall:
Right. Actually the studies show that as dangerous as drunk driving is cell phone use, smartphone use, is so prevalent that it can be six times as dangerous leading to more collisions even than drunk driving. And I did want to mention, I mean driving is so crucial to our everyday lives, it's our economy, it's how we work, it's how we live. Well these days, smartphone use is so prevalent and also very crucial to our lives but they don't mix just like drunk driving.

Interviewer:
Exactly. And the scholarship program designed to get the youth involvement in that let's talk about that real quick. The scholarship program, it's meant to increase awareness. Distracted driving is the leading cause of death for teens. About 10 teens die per day in America. That's over 3000 teens per year, 300,000 people hurt. 95% of teens addicted to their phones, they acknowledged that it's wrong to use a cell phone while driving but over a third of teens do it. So, the scholarship is meant to raise public awareness in general and particularly for teens and to of course support education for youth.
Bert Parnall:
Yeah. And it's a good way to reward them to change the tide of everything about distracted driving because that's a thing affecting the youth too is that again as Bert mentioned everybody's going to have their cell phones, more so the youth. So, if we can start them out early and again reward them for getting involved and changing all that so much the better.

Interviewer:
That's right. And the essay question is basically four things. One, define what distracted driving is and that could be texting, answering a phone, eating, etc. Two, have you experienced, distracted driving either you or somebody around you and what did you do about it? Three, come up with the plan for your family for whenever somebody is driving. What is that plan? And, with youth these days they have a million ideas and many of them are very, very good. So, give us those plans. And number four, have some statistics and data to support your points.

Bert Parnall:
There you go. Wonderful thing you are doing Bert. We want to thank you for joining us. And again, you can always find out more information on this by going over to KRQE.com and clicking on Always On KRQE.com"

Learn more and apply here: https://www.hurtcallbert.com/scholarships/

Parnall Law Firm
2025 San Pedro Dr NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
(505) 207-3865
www.hurtcallbert.com