Picture this.

It is 10:30 p.m. and I am laying in bed on my side. My arm is extended off the bed, grasping my phone. I am watching the photos and videos of my friends, who have recently posted to their Snapchat stories. Some of the videos are of friends out dancing and pictures of their outfits, others are of kittens playing with their toys. But the one that I re-watched multiple times got me thinking. It was a photo with the speedometer filter at 83.3 mph, the individual physically looking at the phone screen, and the picture labeled with text that read "crusin'."

Picture this.

This person, this young 20-something senior in college, never made it home. Five seconds is the average length of time that a person looks away from the road and glances at their phone. Going 55 mph, that is enough time to travel the length of a football field. Now imagine how far this person traveled blindly while taking a photo and driving over 80 mph.

Picture this.

She didn't just swerve off the road. She hit another car. She hit the car of a small family. The kids are crying in the back seat. Other cars pull over, and you can hear the sirens in the distance, coming to rescue the people in the totaled cars.

Picture this.

Her wedding is now postponed. She was going to get married this summer. Instead of walking down the isle, she is now re-learning how to walk at physical therapy.

Every day in the United States, more than nine people lose their lives due to distracted driving. There are three kinds of distracted driving—visual, which is taking your eyes off of the road, manual, which is taking your hands off of the wheel, and cognitive, which is taking your mind off of driving.

Fortunately, she made it home. She didn't crash, and her next Snap was an outing out with her friends. It could have been a completely different story. Not only was her own life at risk, but so were those of the people around her. If you've ever been guilty of texting, calling, Snapchating, emailing, or doing anything else while driving, I encourage you to reconsider. A 24 hour photo isn't worth it. A text isn't worth it. An email isn't worth it.

Picture this.