Drivers distracted by texting are 20 times more likely to be involved in a crash than drivers who are not texting. Texting while driving is a dangerous activity that many teens and young adults are expiricing. The government needs to show teens that this is a issue they don’t take likely by making texting while driving illegal.
Many teens do it, imagine, you are at a stop light and you get a text. You begin to read it and are replying when the light turns green, you figure that you I only have a few more words to send so you continue to text while driving. At the time it seems insignificant, but is it really? Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% every year, this according to Edgar Snyder & Associates. You are probably thinking, oh well those are the stupid people, they can’t multitask like I can, this is often called the superman mindset of I’m young, nothing can hurt me, but that’s wrong.
A new study shows that texting while driving is six times more likely to end in a car crash than driving while intoxicated, according the Edgar Snyder & Associates. Driving while intoxicated is illegal in all 50 states of America; no one condones it, so why should texting be any different? Actually according to new studies texting is worse. A man who drinks then decides to get behind a wheel and drive can spend up to life in prison if they injure or kill a person, and yet we do nothing about the thousands that get hurt or killed by texting drivers.
Distracted drivers on average kill 6,000 people a year. Distracted drivers are one of our nation’s leading causes of death, the truth is car crashes kill on average 42,636 people a year in America. This is an epidemic in our country.
You wouldn’t go out and get a gun and shoot someone, but you might kill a child by hitting them in a cross walk you didn’t see because the new gossip on your phone was more important. You wouldn’t go out and mass murder a family, but you could hit a family full car and kill them because you were distracted. You wouldn’t get into a car after getting drunk, so why would you text and drive?
Every time you get behind the wheel and text you are putting innocent people’s lives at stake. We charge people for attempted murder, so why don’t we charge the same for texting and driving. You would never mean for anything to happen, but after taking a life there is nothing you can do to fix it. You would probably end up in a hospital, struggling to breathe, hand cuffed to the bed because you are charged with manslaughter, you can now never fix what you have done. After you recover you end up going to jail for 15-25 years, once you get out you are now 42 and have no work experience, can’t get a job because you have a record, as well as have to deal with the grief of taking a life.
Not only is it an issue if you hurt another person but also what if you don’t hit a car but a light pole instead, you could be in a coma for the rest of your life, breathing from a tube.
Driving is a privilege, one that many teens seem to be taking advantage of.
Teens need to understand the consequences of their actions, and I believe it is partially the law’s job to help. I believe there should be a, $1,000 fine for texting while driving, hopefully that can help teens get the message of what they’re doing isn’t just affecting them but others around them.