Highlighting dangers of texting while driving

‘From One Second to The Next’ focuses on the dangers of texting while driving. It opens with an alarming statistic: over 100,000 accidents per year are caused by drivers who text, a number which is rising.

Herzog spotlights four people whose lives have been changed by text-driving. Firstly, there’s Xavier - an energetic young child, hit and paralysed by a driver who was texting. His mother speaks of the change in her son, post accident, and the difficulty of his condition.

The family of Debbie, a woman hit by a teen driver, share their similar story. There’s also Chandler, who recounts his memory of an accident which killed a family from the Amish community and finally Reggie, who caused the death of a scientist and returns to the scene of his crash.

Each subject is very candid and you can’t help but sympathise with them all. It has opened my eyes to the dangers of texting while driving and changed my perception of what I initially thought was not such a serious subject. Unlike other Herzog documentaries he does not appear in any form on camera. In a way, I feel this helped add to the object message of this haunting film.