Texting and Driving
Do you find yourself doing the ever dangerous act of texting and driving? Five seconds, that’s how long your eyes are off the road when you text. That’s how long it takes to drive across a football field at 55 miles per hour. More than 5,000 people die each year as a result of being distracted while driving, and a new study indicates that teens and cell phones make for the most volatile combination.
Among the various distractions, ranging from talking with passengers to adjusting the radio, texting while driving was particularly perilous. 77% of young adults are very or somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving. 55% of young adult drivers claim it’s easy to text while they drive. Yet, teens who text and drive spend approximately 10% of their time outside of their lane.
Elders act as if teens are the only delinquents, but they are just as guilty. 48% of kids ages 12-17 have been in a car while the driver was texting. Also, 27% of adults have sent or received text messages while driving. One in five drivers confess to surfing the web while driving. They justify this by saying “reading a text is safer than composing and sending one.” They also say they hold the phone near the window for “better visibility.” No matter what, this is now illegal in most states. 39 states prohibit all drivers from text messaging, and 10 states prohibit all drivers from any cell phone usage. In 2011, at least 23% of auto collisions involved cell phones; that’s 1.3 million crashes.
The supporters of the opposing side believe they are great at multitasking and can easily text while driving. This is a fallacy and very invalid. This is the sharp shooting fallacy. They only state their side, and avoid the facts. The human brain cannot do two things at the same time. The brain switches between two tasks which slows reaction time. If you test people while they're texting or talking on the phone, they will actually miss a lot of things that are in their visual periphery. Driving requires a surprising amount of brain power. Out on the road, we have to process huge amounts of visual information, predict the actions of other drivers and coordinate precise movements of our hands and feet.
Though automobile accidents take place every single day and for various reasons, texting while driving seems to constantly top the list. More and more drivers (both teens and adults) are having trouble keeping focus on the road, instead choosing to look at their cell phones. Surprisingly enough, staying off your phone while driving can be quite difficult. After all, once you hear that initial ring or buzz, you're likely to become instantly distracted and reach for your cell, which means your eyes will pull from the road. There is no easy solution for this; it is an act of self control. Some helpful tips are: Turn your cell on "silent" or completely off. Or put your cell phone out of reach (i.e. the trunk or glove box). Of course laws have been put into place, but that does not stop everyone.
Next time you’re behind the wheel think twice before reaching for your cell. Text messaging makes a crash up to 23 times more likely to happen. Be aware of your actions. Don't be a statistic... don't be a distracted driver! We need to keep working together until all Americans keep their eyes off their phone and on the road. No text message is worth dying for.
