The family of a young man who received serious, traumatic injuries in a car crash because he was texting has started a nonprofit to discourage texting while driving. His next-to-last text while driving was partially prophetic.
“I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident,” typed Chance Bothe, 21, of Victoria, Texas.
Moments later, half of that prediction came true.
Bothe had been texting a friend while driving. He missed a slight curve and drove into a ravine. His truck dropped 20 to 30 feet.
Luckily for him, two passersby stopped and pulled him from his truck before it burst into flames.
It’s been a long road to recovery for Bothe over the last six months since the crash.
He suffered a severe skull fracture, severe head trauma with a brain bleed, a compound fracture to his left ankle, a punctured right lung and multiple facial fractures.
Bothe has undergone two complete facial reconstruction surgeries in the last six months.
He’s had to learn how to do many things all over again, such as speaking with proper voice inflection and emotion.
Now Bothe, his mother, his sister and other family and friends have started UnSend, a foundation to raise awareness about texting the driving.
UnSend’s temporary website asks people to, “Make a pledge and take a stand to ‘Keep it in Your Pants.’ The text can wait. Your life cannot.”
“I went to my grandmother’s funeral not long ago, and I kept thinking … I’m surprised that’s not me up in that casket,” Bothe told a local TV station. “I came very close to that, to being gone forever.”
A total of 39 states plus DC ban texting while driving. Another five states ban it for novice drivers.
Ten states plus DC ban all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving.
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