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Do Cell Phones Kill 1,000 People a Year? |
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From Mother Jones
 Behind the wheel and busy on her cell phone, Holly Jo Smeckert didn't slow down as she neared Knapp's Corner, a busy intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
It was January 19, 2004, and the 20-year-old nanny and Sunday-school teacher was taking her young charge to dance class in her employers' Hummer. Smeckert was so absorbed in her call that she noticed neither the red light nor the line of cars stopped in the adjacent lane awaiting a signal change. Traffic flowed through the intersection in front of her, but that didn't register either. Without even touching the brakes, she blasted through the light at 45 miles an hour, slamming into a Chevy Suburban and pushing it 120 feet—over a sidewalk and onto a patch of snow.
The other driver, Judy Teater, wasn't badly hurt, but Joe, her 12-year-old son, bore the full impact. He was unconscious, his breathing wet and gurgling. Judy, a former nurse, struggled to clear an airway. An anesthesiologist pulled over and tried mouth-to-mouth, sucking blood from Joe's lungs and spitting it onto the snow. A neighbor of the Teaters who had witnessed the crash called Judy's husband Dave in near hysterics; he arrived in time to watch emergency crews extricate his son, and then rode with Joe in the ambulance.
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Why Did the Feds Bury Data on Cell-Phone Dangers? |
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From Mother Jones
Last October, we reported what the New York Times has now discovered—something we've all probably suspected, but had little hard data to go on: that driving a car while yakking or texting on an electronic device is an extremely risky proposition. And that the hands-free laws many states have enacted are of little value, a politically expedient solution that is unlikely to save lives, but lets lawmakers seem to be doing something without incurring the wrath of the powerful cell phone industry.
The moving story by Mother Jones contributor Myron Levin involved the plight of the Teaters, a Michigan family whose 12-year-old (pictured) was killed by a chatting motorist, and his father's determination to get some answers. The driver, Levin reported, "had clear skies and good visibility. She was sober. And yet she had failed to process a whole string of visual cues. To Dave Teater, this made no sense at all—so he began to do some research." Key to Levin's story was the quashing, by top Transportation Department officials, of an extensive report on cell-phone driving risks that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) had intended to make public.
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Salvation Out of Tragedy - by Patti Pena
Rob and I have been married for almost nine years and from the moment we met, we quickly knew we shared many common goals. We wanted to leave our crazy lives behind and settle down to raise a family. We wanted to reach the point financially where we could afford to have me stay home and raise our children. On May 18, 1997 we had a little girl and we named her Morgan Lee. She was more than we could have ever dreamed of. She was so beautiful and we were so in love with her. She meant absolutely everything to us. In January of 1999, I began working at a day-care where Morgan could come with me. She did not like being there, and I knew it wasn’t the right thing for any of us, but in less than a year I was able to give my two weeks notice. Friday, October 29, 1999 was my last day at work. What a relief. I could finally now take the job I had always wanted, to be a full-time stay-at-home mom.
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A Mother's Crusade: Family Circle Article, April 18, 2000 |
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"I had just bought Morgan her 'big girl' bed and decorated her room with eyelet bedding and purple gingham," recalls Patti Pena. "We'd recently moved into our dream house, and I kept thinking how lucky I was and how this really was the beginning of the rest of our lives." Only it wasn't. On November 3, 1999, Morgan Lee Pena, age 2 1/2 died. The effervescent towhead with a delicious smile and hazel eyes, who devoured books and sang with delight, succumbed to injuries sustained when the Jeep driven by her mother was struck by a man who ran a stop sign because "he was distracted while using his cell phone," says Patti, 29.
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