With one text or call, it makes drivers six times more prone to getting into
accidents. According to an article by Larry Magid of CNET News, “When I think
about all the possible dangers associated with technology (cyber bullying, sexting,
inappropriate materials, online and gaming addiction or even the remote chance of
being harmed by a predator), nothing strikes me as scarier than texting while driving.”Of course texting can kill but really the drivers should pay more attention to
the road than to their phones.
It seems like everyone has a blackberry, an iPhone, or some other such
phone with a keyboard on it. People who text constantly while near or around
people is not just rude but very dangerous. Texting is actually worse than driving
drunk . So teens aren’t the only ones who are texting but adult are just as guilty as
teens. But it is shocking to know that teens are the biggest risks out on the road. An
article says,”The average U.S. mobile teen now sends or receives an average of
2,899 text messages per month. Apparently some of those texts are being sent and
read from behind the wheel.” So a study in 2007 says, “AAA and seventeen
magazines have been widely misquoted as 46 percent of teens admit to texting while
driving. But what the study actually found is that ’61 percent of teens admit to risky
driving habits’ forty-six percent of that 61 say that they text message while driving.”
People have been talking about there is going to be a ban on texting while
driving. That would be wise to cut down on the accidents that are caused by texting
while driving. An article by Radley Balko for US News and World Report says, “In
1995, there were 1.72 deaths for every 100 million traveled by 2007, the figure has
dropped to 1.36, a 21 percent decline. But let’s say you’re OK with a ban reading
cell phone messages, too. How would you write the law? Would you prohibit so
much as glance in the general direction of a cell phone while driving? Should we
mandate that cell phones be stored out of the driver’s sight when the car isn’t in
park? What about other things that might distract him or her from the road, like
navigation systems? Shiny objects? Pretty girls in the passenger’s seat? How would
you prove a driver was looking at a cell phone and not something near it?” Really
how would they know what they were looking at?
There are many studies done to show what would happen when you take
your eyes off the road to see a text message or something. The reaction time is
slower than when not texting on your phone. As a study by the Virginia Tech

Transportation Institute says,”That truck drivers who were texting were 23 times
more at risk of a ‘crush or near death event’ than ‘non distracted’ driving. As per
talking on a cell phone, the same study found no increased risk for truck drivers
and 1.3 times the risk for car drivers.” A reported by CNET’s Jennifer Guevin,
study also found that, “texting took drivers focus away from the road for an
average of 4.6 seconds-enough time…..to travel a football field at 55 mph.”


Will drivers pay more attention to the road more than their phone? Cause
now there are 9 states that have the ban on texting while driving. What do driver
need to do to be safer and not in a risk of cause an accident, what will they
decided? Knowing teens are at the biggest risk of causing a crash by texting while
driving. If teen paid more attention the risk would go down and the roads would be
safer. Plus it only takes a second or less to cause an accident, or even a death. For
every six seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends
4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most
distracting of all cell phone related tasks.