It's painful, even as a stranger, to read Lauren Mulkey's obituary. What a beautiful young woman. Tributes to the young woman, killed in a traffic accident, describe her as a confident, athletic young woman who stuck up for the underdog and befriended many, many people.
Her mother, Linda Mulkey, said this of her heartbreak, "I am not ready to not have someone to take care of anymore. I'm not ready not to be a mom." As parents, losing a child is one of our deepest fears.
Worse, Lauren Mulkey's death was needless. Her car was hit by a teen driver talking on a cell phone. If only we could rewind the tape for all involved. I know a bit about hitting another person with a car. It happened to me when I was 16 years old. Although it wasn't my fault and the boy wasn't seriously injured, I'll never forget the sound of the thud of his small body on the hood of my car. Because of that experience, my heart goes out to the driver who struck Lauren Mulkey, too.
The best that can come from this situation is awareness. Driving is a full-time job. Despite the nifty drink holders and fold-out trays in cars, they are not dining areas. Despite the lighted make-up mirrors built in to our automobile sun shades, our cars are not makeup counters. Despite all the gadgets that enable us to place cell phone calls, our cars are not makeshift phone booths.
Nor are they time machines.
I'll confess here and now. I'm guilty of all of the above. I've done some simultaneously. I'm not proud of that.
So why do I have license to lecture you? I don't, really. But I do feel an obligation to tell you to wake up and smell the Starbucks. Just not in your car.
As much as we get a charge out of being so efficient, doing everything at once isn't all it's cracked up to be. Experts say our addiction to multitasking actually slows us down and increases the likelihood of making mistakes. The human brain, they say, is unable to concentrate on two things at once.
Young people may be able to juggle a bit better than us older folks, but even then, being distracted for a second can have deadly consequences when behind the wheel of a car.
In Utah, it's time to get religion about this. One reason is a new law will crack down on distracted driving. It's not limited to cell-phone talking, it's also about personal grooming and eating. If you cause a traffic accident, you can also receive a ticket for distracted driving as a secondary offense.
We've got to do more to change our own habits, irrespective of the law. Last week, our 15-year-old received her driving permit. All of a sudden, my own driving habits are under intense scrutiny. I need to change my ways, and it's not as simple as it might sound. I pretty much shun cell-phone use in the car. But I recognize that other bad practices are just as perilous — eating/drinking while running errands at the lunch hour; applying makeup or shuffling through papers en route to the bank.
I have to be a better example because I want my child to be a safe driver. I want others sharing the road to have their full focus on the task at hand — not because it's the law but because we have a collective responsibility to our passengers and others with whom we share the road. We owe it to Lauren Mulkey to learn from this horrible loss.
Marjorie Cortez, whose early phone use was strictly limited because her family shared party lines and long-distance calling prices were so prohibitive and thusly isn't a big telephone talker, is a Deseret Morning News editorial writer. E-mail her at marjorie@desnews.com.