By Michel Shane
DRIVING CHANGE
As holiday lights twinkle along the Pacific Coast Highway, I’m reminded of another light extinguished far too soon — my daughter Emily’s. Fourteen years have passed since a driver deliberately took her life on this same road. Yet, as families gather to celebrate each December, I think of the empty chairs at countless tables across our community and beyond. These aren’t just statistics; they’re missed smiles at holiday dinners, unopened presents, and silenced laughter. Since 2010, 62 empty chairs have appeared at tables in our community — each representing countless hearts that will never fully heal.
The season of giving sharpens our focus on what we, as a community, must give to one another: the promise of safer roads. Every day, 40,000 drivers navigate PCH, where neural processes measured in milliseconds determine who makes it home for dinner. As I watch cars speed past holiday shoppers and see drivers glancing at their phones, an urgent truth strikes me — we can’t wait for another tragedy to act.
What if I told you that the key to preventing these tragedies lies within the 3-pound universe inside our skulls? The science is both fascinating and frightening. Your brain, with its 86 billion neurons, performs a magnificent ballet while driving. The prefrontal cortex — our executive command center — juggles multiple tasks simultaneously, like a master conductor leading an orchestra. But here’s the crucial reality: this conductor can drop the baton in just 0.3 seconds of distraction.
At highway speeds, that 0.3 seconds — barely longer than a heartbeat — means your vehicle travels 44 feet before your brain can even begin to respond to danger. During these hectic holiday weeks, when our neural circuits are already overwhelmed with seasonal stresses, this limitation becomes deadly. Every glance at a text message, every reach for a coffee cup, and every moment spent changing a playlist creates temporary neural blindness. Scientists call it “attentional blink,” but I call it playing Russian roulette with human lives.
Here’s a simple exercise to illustrate this point: imagine counting basketball passes between players wearing white shirts while trying to track the movement of other players in black shirts. Sounds manageable, right? Yet studies show that when focused on one task, our brains often completely miss obvious events happening right in front of us — even something as unexpected as a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene. This phenomenon, known as inattentional blindness, happens to all of us. If we can miss something so obvious in a simple attention exercise, think about what we might miss while managing the complex task of driving while distracted. On PCH, that missed detail could be a child crossing the street, a sudden brake light, or a swerving car.
Here is another example for those who would prefer visual stimulation and a simple exercise to illustrate my point: Watch the YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=12yKJiqI3ZY. Consider whether you could do better; this is the core of my argument. Reflect on the consequences of this simple game, and now think about what you are doing when distracted and driving.
The Emily Shane Foundation is pioneering an educational revolution based on these neural insights. We’re developing programs that don’t just teach driving rules — they teach brain awareness. Through immersive experiences and gamified learning, students discover their brain’s capabilities and limitations. They learn why multitasking is a myth (the brain actually toggles between tasks, creating dangerous attention gaps) and how to strengthen their neural networks for better driving performance.
Think of it this way: we would only send a pilot into the sky without understanding how their aircraft works. Yet we send drivers onto PCH without teaching them how their neural aircraft — the brain — operates under pressure. This knowledge isn’t just academic — it’s survival equipment.
While government agencies gradually move toward solutions, families in our community need protection now. The Emily Shane Foundation stands ready to implement these vital programs, but we need your community’s embrace. Your contribution to our 501(c)(3) organization isn’t just a donation — it’s an investment in neural education that could save lives.
As I drive PCH during these holiday evenings, watching lights reflect off the ocean, I’m reminded of Emily and the 62 others who’ve left empty chairs at tables since 2010. But those same lights illuminate a path forward. I’m just one person — a filmmaker who refused to accept that traffic deaths are inevitable. I’ve created educational tools, advocated for speed cameras, and developed programs to make our roads safer. But one person’s voice, no matter how passionate, isn’t enough.
Malibu can become a model community for traffic safety, showcasing how understanding our brain’s architecture can prevent tragedies. But this vision needs your support to become a reality. As you gather with loved ones this holiday season, consider giving our community the gift of neuroscience-based driver education. While we await government action, we can move forward together, protecting our community one driver — one brain — at a time.
Together, we can transform PCH from a highway of heartbreak into a road of hope. If you’re moved to join this vital mission, contact The Emily Shane Foundation through social media or email to learn how you can contribute to this innovative driver education program. Whether through volunteering, spreading awareness, or making a tax-deductible donation, every action brings us closer to safer roads.
Because every life saved is a future preserved, every family kept whole, and every holiday that remains a celebration is a testament to the power of community action guided by science.
The empty chairs at our holiday tables remind us that the time for change is now.
You can reach me at 21milesinmalibu@gmail.com
All the best
Michel
