One Split Second: The Distracted Driving Epidemic - How it Kills and How We Can Fix It - Vijay Dixit

nForeword by U.S. Senator Amy KlobucharVijay Dixit's book is an important contribution toward raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. For the Dixit family, the issue is personal. Vijay lost his daughter, Shreya, to a distracted driver on November 1, 2007. She was only 19 years old. Such tragedy would sideline many, but Vijay pushed forward and made it his life's mission to end distracted driving and prevent other families from going through what his family has endured. Drawing on the expertise from those in the field, including safety professionals and researchers, the latest facts and figures, and personal stories, Vijay has created a comprehensive guide to distracted driving and potential solutions. He explores how technology, education, and laws can change our behavior and improve safety. He offers an original framework for student-led distraction-free driving advocacy clubs in high schools to help teens learn responsible driving behaviors. I commend Vijay for launching clubs in three Minnesota high schools in 2015 and setting them up to achieve measurable goals. Over the years I have met with families across the country-including the Dixits-who have lost loved ones when a driver took his or her eyes off the road. Their heartbreaking stories remind us that distracted driving is a matter of life and death. Whether it is texting with a friend, searching for music files, or typing directions into the GPS, distracted driving is putting drivers, passengers, and pedestrians at risk. It only takes a moment of distracted driving to cause a tragedy. Five seconds is the average time a driver's eyes are off the road while texting. For a driver traveling at 55 miles per hour, that's like covering the length of a football field blindfolded.No text message is worth dying for.In the age of smartphones, distracted driving is playing an outsized role and endangering everyone on the road. Every day, nine people are killed and more than 1,100 people are injured in the United States in crashes involving distracted driving. Nearly half of all U.S. high school students aged 16 or older admitted to texting or emailing behind the wheel. More must be done to quell this epidemic that is sweeping the country. That is why I worked with U.S. Senators John Hoeven (R-ND), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to introduce bipartisan legislation to crack down on distracted driving in Minnesota and across the country. In 2014, millions of dollars in feder