Would you believe that there’s something more dangerous than drunk driving? There is. It’s a pretty simple answer: texting while driving. Public service announcements like “It Can Wait” should not be taken lightly. Countless stories have been told where someone was composing a text while driving and, in a literal millisecond, lives have been impacted.
To put this into context, texting rose from 9.8 billion messages in December 2005 to 110.4 billion in December 2008 and of course, it continues to rise each year as more and more people are texting. Car and Driver who did this study realizes that they don’t get much funding, so they had limited resources to work with. They rented out a taxiway that was a adjacent to 11,800 in Michigan. Their two subjects were more than 10 years apart and they had two different types of phones. They used a Honda Pilot with a red light on the windshield to indicate for the driver to stop. In the passenger seat would be someone tracking the results of the driver’s response time to braking at the red light. The first time they were texting while driving and the second time they had a couple of screwdriver drinks. They only had enough reach slightly above the legal limit. The results were staggering. For both drivers, the reaction distance while they impaired were generally at the same. At 35 mph, they both were at 7ft and at 70 mph, the older driver was 17ft and the younger driver was 15ft. Unfortunately, for texting the results were worst. The younger driver, at 35 mph, the reaction distance was 16ft and at 70 mph the reaction distance was 31ft. The older driver, at 35 mph, the reaction distance was 90ft and at 70 mph the reaction distance was 319ft.
This is not to advocate the driving drunk is better than driving while texting. Drunk driving is still not acceptable and it’s still dangerous. However, showing that the results prove that texting while driving is more dangerous, they should be more laws passed and stricter fines for those whom choose to text while driving. People believe that they are really good drivers, but the test subjects were not aware that using their phone actually slowed down their reaction time. This test just proved that people need to keep their eyes on the road and having driving their vehicle as the main focus.
Some states have raised texting while as the same level as drunk driving. They understand the importance of this heavily charged issue. I think texting while driving should be more of a federal law then just states law. While some people think that these laws will take away their free speech and some people think that it’s an invasion on their privacy, but please explain that to the parents of Ronnie Scroggins and Vanna Francis who lost their children when the driver of the car they were in lost control of the car and plunged into a river where their children drown. The driver admitted to driving while texting and she was later arrested. Or imagine what 17-year-old Patrick Sims must be feeling right now when decided to reply to a text message and drifted into the bicycle lane and struck and killed cyclist Jim Price, 63. He was charged with careless driving resulting in death. There are countless stories on the internet of people who lost their life or severely injured because someone had to send a text, tweet, e-mail, or other activity on their phone while driving. I hope this article wakes people up to the dangers of texting while driving and having you thinking twice before picking up your phone while you are on the road.
