What makes a mistake something someone will never do again? It is usually the outcome of the mistake. It is what went wrong, but the problem with texting and driving is that it is not always something that goes wrong, but when it does go astray, it is usually life-threatening. How are people supposed to learn from an outcome that has never happened to them? The first step of learning from a mistake is to own the mistake, but it is hard to own a mistake when it does not feel like one. Well, the easiest way is to learn from someone else's mistake.

Liz Marks was a popular girl, a model even, but that all stopped when she used her phone while driving. She read a one-word text before she even had time to respond; she had crashed into a truck. Liz had to be airlifted from the accident to the University of Baltimore Shock Trauma Center, and the first responders did not even think she would make it. She ended up spending a month in the ICU to have various surgeries. After that, she spent another three months at the Kennedy Krieger Institute relearning reading, writing, walking, talking, swallowing, and chewing. She survived, but she has severe facial trauma. She is blind in one eye, cannot smell, has lost some of her hearing, cannot even make her tears, and cannot sleep without medication.

Alexandra Mansonet was found guilty of vehicular manslaughter after she killed someone while texting and driving. The lawyer stated, "It's going to be very difficult for her to deal with the fact that at sentencing she could be incarcerated for something we are all guilty of doing on a daily basis." She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Not only does she have to spend ten years in prison for something that almost everyone does, but she will forever have to live with the guilt of knowing her actions killed someone. She will always know that her texting back that she wanted Mexican food led to a woman dying. Alexandra was not a bad person.

She was the chief executive at a nonprofit and had won awards or her extensive work with troubled youth. She could be replaced by almost anyone in this situation. It only takes a little bit of bad luck and a decision that 240,900,000 people make a year to end someone's life.

How deadly is texting while driving? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that in America alone, approximately 660,000 people try to use their phones while driving everyday. This averages 240,900,000 people a year, which is 5% more than the number of licensed people in America. According to the NHTSA, between 2014 and 2017, 1,366 people died from crashes involving drivers using cell phones. 1,300 people are enough to constitute a massacre, a massacre where the weapon used was the send button. A massacre composed of people saying what they want to eat, and when they are going to arrive, that is if they end up at their destination. A massacre made up of people just like any other people.

People who never thought it would happen to them.

Every time someone looks at their phone while driving, it's a gamble. One where the wager is their life versus something as trivial as what kind of music they want to listen to or what they want to eat for dinner. Unfortunately, some of them never make it there. It is a question people have to ask themselves: Would you rather lose a minute of your life or your life in a minute?