Important headlines for July 10th – Do we even pay attention to Florida's distracted driving issues?
Bottom Line: These are stories you shouldn't miss and my takes on them...
Driver who struck and killed horses, injuring two riders, was reaching for cellphone, police say Aric Chokey – Sun Sentinel
Excerpt: A 9-year-old girl and an adult woman were thrown off their horses and are in the hospital after a truck hit them. The driver told police he was reaching for his cellphone when he hit the horses, said Davie Police Sgt. Mark Leone. Both riders suffered life-threatening injuries, and the two horses were killed, Davie Police spokesman Dale Engle said. The two were crossing Griffin Road at Southwest 198th Terrace in Southwest Ranches when the truck hit them, Davie police said.
Hot Take: But does anyone (other than the victims) care? No doubt if you lost a loved one in an accident as careless as this one you would. But unfortunately, that might be the only thing that'd change current behavior. According to FHP We had over 49,000 distracted driving accidents last year resulting in 3,500 serious injuries and 233 deaths. Distracted driving in Florida is up 26 percent over the past four years. Here's another way of looking at it... Every day in Florida we average:
137 distracted driving accidents
10 people who're seriously injured
Nearly one death
The problem is also much worse in Florida compared to other states. Despite being the third most populous state, we have the second highest distracted driving accident count. We've passed stickier laws, including bans on texting while driving, which clearly haven't done anything to abate distracted driving. At this point I would support hands free use of phones – only, but it's up to us. What person wouldn't put down their phone to save their life, or that of others – so why don't we? It's time.
Excerpt: At 22, Hernandez had dreamed of following the trail of thousands of others who have left this town in central Honduras to head north. As many as 20 percent of Yoro's 90,000 residents have gone to the United States, according to a rough estimate from city officials, though there are no official statistics.
But reports from the U.S. border of mass deportations and migrants being separated from their children had rattled Hernandez.
“We’ve all seen the news about the children locked up and separated from their parents,” she said. “The trip there is so dangerous and you don’t know if you will win or lose.”
According to the Pew Research Center, Honduran migration to the United States increased by 25 percent from 2007 to 2015. About 630,000 Hondurans are living in the United States, many of them without legal documents, according to Pew.
Hot Take: Perfect, more evidence that the policy is starting to work. That's the entire point of the Trump administration's enforcement policy. To ensure that illegal immigration isn't attempted in the first place. Under the Obama administration only approximately 25% of those detained crossing illegally were processed. We saw what that led to with huge spikes in illegal caravans and crossings putting everyone at risk in the process. With 100% being processed – would be illegal immigrants know that if they're caught they'll be deported and likely worse off than if they hadn't attempted to illegally cross in the first place. That's the benefit of law and order. Deterring crime is the most effective form of law enforcement.