December 19, 2018 (Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, QC) – Last year, on December 22, my friend, cyclist and racer Jason Lowndes was killed by a car while training close to his home in Australia. He was 23.

The driver who hit him was texting while driving at the moment of impact. A few weeks ago, in Florida, a distracted driver plowed into a 14-cyclist peloton. Of the 14 people in the group, two were killed. In December 2016, Ellen Watters, a 28-year-old member of the Canadian cycling national team, was also killed by a distracted driver while training close to her home in Nova Scotia. In April 2017, Michele Scarponi, star of the Astana professional cycling team, was killed by a truck driver who was watching a video on his smartphone, a few days only before the start of the Giro d’Italia, in which he was slated to participate.

Christmas will be upon us in a few days; lives have been taken, families destroyed and drivers saw their lives ruined. The cell phone is an extraordinary communication tool but, if used while driving a vehicle, it can become a lethal weapon.

At Garneau, we have decided to launch the International “Don’t Text and Drive” Day to make everyone on the planet aware of the danger of texting and driving. Cyclists have been killed, but texting while driving is indiscriminate; pedestrians and other motorists could also be the victims of fatal crashes.

This event is first and foremost a rallying at the human scale, no matter the way of life or means of transportation, in a great effort to bring awareness to this issue. Following this announcement, we will deploy a message chain on social media which, I hope, will touch millions of people around the world and which will be repeated every December 22, for the rest of our lives, in homage to my friend Jason.

Today, 22 people will be pledging their support to this cause.