Talk. Text. Crash. campaign launches statewide

AUSTIN

It happens every day. You get a text or a phone call and you feel the need to respond immediately, even when you’re driving. But what you may not know is a simple text or call can cost you your life or someone else’s. “Distracted driving is unacceptable, and it’s something that is preventable,” said John Barton, TxDOT’s deputy executive director. “If you reply to or send a text while driving, you are putting your life or someone else’s life at risk.” It’s a fact – distracted drivers are making Texas roads more dangerous. According to crash data collected by the Texas Department of Transportation, to date, there were 90,378 crashes in Texas in 2012 that involved distracted driving (distraction, driver inattention or cellphone use). That’s an 8-percent increase from 2011. Of these crashes, 18,468 resulted in serious injuries and 453 resulted in deaths. From 2011 to 2012, there was a 9-percent increase in traffic fatalities caused by distracted driving on Texas roadways. According to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, almost half of all Texas drivers in 2012 admit to regularly or sometimes talking on the cell phone while driving. However, 84.9 percent of Texas drivers think driving while talking on a cell phone is a very serious or somewhat serious threat to their personal safety. In another just-completed study, TTI researchers found that 10 percent of Texas drivers are using their cell phone at any point in time during the day. The finding represents the first time that actual cell phone use by Texas drivers has been measured (rather than self-reported use), and was based on observations of drivers at 190 intersections in 22 counties across the state. Talk. Text. Crash. Campaign Launch Today, TxDOT is launching its Talk. Text. Crash. campaign to coincide with National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Throughout this month, TxDOT will reach out to Texans through community events, TV public service announcements, and online and outdoor advertising. TxDOT is also partnering with AT&T on this year’s distracted driving effort. “In today’s tech-connected age, people are relying on text messages and smartphones to stay in touch, but texting while driving is something that carries profound, very real risks. In the United States, someone is killed or injured once every five minutes on average in a crash that happens while a driver is texting and driving. It’s time we worked together to change behaviors, attitudes, hearts and minds,” said Dave Nichols, President, AT&T Texas. “We can each commit not to text and drive. We can lead by example. That’s why we’re pleased to join the Texas Department of Transportation in its Text.Talk.Crash. effort and why we continue to raise awareness through our AT&T's own It Can Wait campaign.” As part of the campaign, TxDOT is asking Texans to do their part by making a simple commitment to focus on driving when they get behind the wheel. Barton notes, “Use of cell phones while driving isn’t the only action that can lead to serious injury or death. Other actions, such as reading the newspaper, eating or smoking while driving, are also distractions. Keeping drivers safe is our priority.” Although all the age groups are represented in the total number of traffic crashes caused by distracted driving, of the 90,378 traffic crashes in 2012 in Texas, the top two age groups are: o 28,443 ages 16-24. o 23,784 over the age of 45. This year’s campaign PSAs will demonstrate to Texans how hard it is to complete any simple task – like walking when distracted. The goal is to show that if people cannot text and walk without having an accident, they surely should not text and drive. Texans can watch campaign videos on YouTube. Learn more about the Talk. Text. Crash. campaign by liking the TxDOT Facebook page: www.facebook.com/txdot.

By: Dr. Mariam Azin

Can guns in the classroom prevent the next school shooting tragedy? The National Rifle Association has proposed arming teachers as a deterrent to the next Adam Lanza or T.J. Lane. While school districts will need to find the security solutions that they and their communities are comfortable with, I’d like to see our teachers, principals and staff armed with something potentially more powerful — the tools and information to identify students who are headed for a mental health crisis. Every time a troubled young person commits a horrific act of violence, we try to understand what went wrong. The media is still looking into Adam Lanza’s upbringing, mental health status, and school records for clues to the Newtown, Conn., tragedy. We’ve done the same for James Holmes, Jared Lee Laughner, TJ Lane. In every case, we find that there were warning signs, usually years in advance. One thing we know: a mentally healthy, socially secure and well-balanced teen doesn’t just wake up one morning and decide to kill a dozen people. Teachers, neighbors, peers and relatives always are able to look backwards and identify things that just “weren’t quite right.” Mental health experts estimate that one in 10 teens has a mental health issue, and as many as 80 percent of them may be undiagnosed. Mental health problems like schizophrenia, depression and bipolar disorder often manifest between the ages of 14 and 24. It is no accident that many of the most publicized mass shootings have been carried out by young people (often men) in their teens or twenties. What role can schools play in ensuring that teens who need mental health services are identified, referred and receive services? We may want to exempt schools from this responsibility and insist that they focus only on academics. But the reality is, they cannot focus on academics unless they have first established a safe environment for learning. Students who are in a mental health crisis are a disruption to the learning process in the best case, and a danger to themselves, their peers and school staff in the worst case. We can—and should—talk about appropriate security precautions. But this addresses only one piece of the problem. If we could make our schools perfectly secure, a troubled student intent on homicide would then take his weapon to the theater, the mall or the public park. We need to figure out how to prevent these kinds of attacks from happening at all, without turning ourselves into a police state. The way to do this is to focus on early identification of students who are showing signs of risk, and establishing a strong referral and monitoring program to make sure that students in need of mental health services actually receive and benefit from them. It’s not enough to simply log an incident report and walk away. We need to ask what kind of services does the student need? The family? And make sure they have access to appropriate resources. And then we need to follow up, to make sure that the connection was made and interventions are working. If they’re not, we need to try something else. Why should schools be involved in the identification and referral process? Because that’s where the students are. Our high schools and colleges are the front lines, and the last place where we will have young people all gathered together. We cannot count on every family being able to recognize potential problems and self-refer. But we can train our teachers, school counselors and administrators to do a better job of recognizing emerging issues, and give them the tools and resources they need for appropriate identification, referral and management of school- and community-based resources. Keeping our children and communities safe requires more than security precautions. We have a responsibility to potential future victims to do everything we can to prevent future tragedies like Sandy Hook. We also have a responsibility to potential future perpetrators to find them before their demons carry them too far away from us to save. We may not be able to rescue every future Adam Lanza from the demons within. But recognizing and treating signs of dangerous mental illness at the onset will do more to keep our communities safe than all the guns, locks and metal detectors our money can buy.

WASHINGTON

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) released the following statement after introducing the Border Security Results Act with U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), a bill to improve border security including a proposal aimed at achieving a 50 percent reduction in border port of entry wait times.  “By requiring the Department of Homeland Security to use all available tools, including new technologies and results-based metrics, I’m confident we can achieve significantly lower wait times at ports of entry, facilitate enhanced, legitimate trade and travel with our third largest trade partner, and greatly boost security for those living along the border and Americans across the country. “By cutting wait times in half, my legislation will ensure that our Texas border communities are safer and their local economies more prosperous.”   Earlier this year, Sen. Cornyn introduced the Cross Border Trade Enhancement Act of 2013, to encourage public-private partnerships to boost staffing and make infrastructure improvements at U.S. ports of entry.  Sen. Cornyn has also introduced legislation that funds emergency resources for ports of entry along the Southwest border.  

Background on the Bill

The Border Security Results Act of 2013 requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a comprehensive outcome-based strategy for securing our borders that: ·Incorporates advanced technology to get a complete picture of the security of the entire border for full situational awareness · Employs this data to properly allocate manpower and other resources—both at, and between, the land ports of entry · Creates new metrics to define progress based off the number of apprehensions relative to the total number of illegal crossings · Requires DHS to achieve a 50 percent reduction in border port of entry wait times for commercial and passenger vehicles.   

Support For the Bill

“Sen. John Cornyn’s Border Security Results Act wisely shines a spotlight on security efforts at the ports of entry, which smugglers every day attempt to breach in order to enter contraband into the United States. By directing DHS to report to Congress on the Department’s efforts not only to increase security but to analyze its staffing needs at the ports and to assess resources necessary to markedly reduce wait times at the ports for legitimate trade and travelers, this legislation stands to be a catalyst for real reform on the borders. The Border Trade Alliance endorses this important legislation which has a goal of reducing border wait times by 50 percent.” -Jesse J. Hereford, Chairman, Border Trade Alliance  .                       

“As Superintendent of Bridges for the City of Mcallen and in charge of the Administration of City owned bridge operations I applaud Senator John Cornyn for his efforts to help expedite legitimate trade and travel. Providing resources necessary to achieve a 50 percent reduction in the average wait times of commercial and passenger vehicles at our international ports of entry will greatly enhance our competitive edge and increase economic activity in our border region.” -Rigoberto Villarreal, Superintendent of the McAllen International Toll Bridge   “[South Texans’ Property Rights Association] STPRA whole heartedly supports Senator John Cornyn’s Border Security Results Act of 2013.   “Securing the border should be based on ‘operational control’ by developing a comprehensive strategy to obtain control of every sector of the border.   “It is time to support a common sense approach to securing the border that actually works and it’s time to regain control of our nation’s security!” -Susan Durham, Executive Director, South Texans’ Property Rights Association   “The Texas Border Coalition appreciates the work that Sen. Cornyn and Rep. McCall are doing to establish markers on what it will cost to achieve operational control of the U.S.-Mexico border.   “The federal government has spent more than $90 billion over the past decade to secure the border. The results are mixed:  apprehension rates are up for illegal crossings in the frontier between our official border crossings. Yet, powerful drug cartels from Mexico continue to enjoy commercial success along the border, smuggling more drugs than ever into the country through these border crossings. It's an unfortunate fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not developed a cohesive strategy to correct this imbalance.   “We have long said that the U.S. needs well-built, equipped and staffed border crossings that can interdict lawbreakers and facilitate legitimate trade and travel. That includes $6 billion to meet the border's infrastructure requirements and 6,000 new front line Customs inspectors.   “Meanwhile, our immigration system is broken and until the U.S. has a well-run system that expands avenues for legal workers and cracks down on unlawful hiring, illegal border crossings will continue.  TBC will keep working with our senators and representatives in Congress and with the White House to enact comprehensive immigration reform.” -Monica Weisberg-Stewart, Texas Border Coalition, Immigration and Border Security Chair   Senator Cornyn serves on the Finance and Judiciary Committees.  He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Refugees and Border Security subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.