Drivers must resist the urge to text and drive, according to Amelie Croteau.
The young woman is sharing the nightmarish experience that left her confined to a wheelchair after suffering massive injury when she was distracted by a text message while driving her Honda Civic in St. Isidore Quebec on September 24, 2010.
“I texted my ex-boyfriend to tell him lunch was ready and then boom,” she said.
Croteau broke 27 bones, spent 12 hours on the operation table, she spent three weeks in a coma and required nine months of rehabilitation.
The 70-year-old trucker whose rig she drove straight into is now forced to walk with a cane after the collision.
Croteau can no longer practice the sports she loves and says her career opportunities have been limited by her accident.
But she wants the world to know her story, in hopes that they'll be less inclined to pay attention to their phones while at the wheel.
An SAAQ representative told CTV Montreal that 11.5 percent of killer road accidents between 2008 and 2012 were caused by texting, while another 16.1 percent of serious accidents and 26.1 of minor accidents were caused by texting.
“There’s a sort of addiction, they can’t stop,” said SAAQ representative Mario Vaillancourt.
