It can be ridiculously tempting to text while driving. The phone lights up. Its right there on the seat next you. Maybe a fast glance wouldnt be so bad.
German filmmaker Werner Herzogs new documentary on the topic will guarantee you never touch that phone while behind the wheel ever again. From One Second to theNext examines lethal situations from both the victims and perpetrators perspectives to show just how devastatingtexting while driving can be.
The film was commissioned by AT&T and will shown to high schools, safety groups andgovernment agencies across the country, the Associated Press reports. Though it hasa clear, educational agenda, its no less emotionally resonant than Herzogs other films,which often find the director plunging into the extremes of human existence.
What AT&T proposed immediately clicked and connected inside of me, Herzog told the AP.Theres a completely new culture out there. Im not a participant of texting anddriving or texting at all but I see theres something going on in civilization which iscoming with great vehemence at us.
The 35-minute film describes, in excruciating detail, four accidents that resulted when adriver was texting behind the wheel. To drive the message home, Herzog hosts someinterviews at the scene of the accidents, and has police officers show photographs of thewreckage.
The point is made even more painfully when victims and perpetrators describe the small ways their lives have been irreparably changed. In one scene,a mother laments that she cant tell her young boy to go outside and play anymore becausehis injuries keep him tethered to unwieldy medical equipment. In another, an Indiana manreports the last text he sent before causing an accident that killed three people.
What did it say? I love you.