110 People per Day

I have been in two major accidents in my lifetime. I'm not talking minor bumps, exchange your insurance info and drive away kind of accidents, we've all had those. By major I mean air bag deployed, car totalled, lucky to walk away from kind of accidents. One was my fault, the other wasn't and in both cases the responding officer took the report, looked from me to my car and back to me again. "You're lucky to be alive," they said. Don't I know it. Not only am I alive, I walked away from both accidents with only minor scrapes and bruises.

There are many who are less fortunate.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission more than 40,000 people are killed in auto accidents every year. 40,000! Averaging 110 deaths per day! Let that sink in for a moment. If a plane carrying 100 people crashed EVERY DAY the airlins would be shut down. But because these accidents happen by ones and twos, we rarely notice them anymore. Unless, of course, we are stuck in the aftermath on the freeway. I was once a passenger in a car when the driveractually said, "Somebody better have died up there." I understand the frustrations, but come on. No matter how long you sit on the freeway, no matter how late you are to wherever you're going, somebody up ahead is having a worse day.

So friends, please slow down a little, and drive safer. Don't become a statistic, I kinda like having you around.