It wasnt Kerry Keatings idea.

It was Oprahs idea.

But the Santa Clara coach was watching Oprah last January when the American icon filled her stage with people who have lost loved ones to somebody who was text messaging while driving, and the tragic tales stuck with Keating because hes a talker and texter himself. one of the more te to envision a scenario where something similarly bad could happen to him or somebody like him. So Keating decided to be proactive in the movement to eliminate texting while driving. He posted a video on YouTube and created a Do Not Drive While Texting (DNDWT) campaign aimed at fellow coaches about to spend 20 of Julys 31 days on the road recruiting.

“The thing I want to avoid is one of us ending up in an accident [during the July recruiting period],” Keating said. “Half the time you arent even paying attention to what youre doing. Youre just going from one gym to another.”

Theres no denying texting while driving is dangerous.

The statistics are mind-boggling.

Whats worse is that the risk has been compounded recently by social networking sites available on iPhones and Blackberrys, and I know because Im a guilty party. I routinely drive not only while texting, but also while scrolling Twitter. Ive responded to Tweets while steering with my knees. Ive never had an accident because of it, but that probably has more to do with luck than anything else. All it would take to ruin my life (and somebody elses life) is a boy in my neighborhood darting out in front of me while Im looking down at my phone. Id probably have no chance of stopping in time.

“And neither would he,” Keating said. “I saw some of the public service videos when they first came out. Theyre nasty. Youre literally taking your eyes and hands off the road and the wheel. Its really dangerous.”

When Keating adopted this cause he organized a deal with Jawbone that allows coaches to purchase “ICON” headsets designed for hands-free texting for a notable discount in an attempt to add an incentive for more staffs to get on board. Coaches from UCLA, Mississippi State, Butler, George Mason, Murray State, Cal State-Northridge, Loyala-Marymount, Central Michigan and San Francisco have already committed. Keating would like to get that number into the hundreds before staffs begin traveling for an NCAA-sanctioned evaluation period that begins July 6.

“If guys dont make themselves aware of this issue beforehand, Im almost willing to bet somebody will get into an accident,” Keating said. “Well never know if it came from texting. But I just wanted to be a little proactive about it.”

Posted on June 25th, 2010 by admin
Filed under: NCAA basketball news