Text Messaging While Driving has Become a Big Problem
Posted on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 and is filed under Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Oftentimes, the only way we can get anything done is by multi-tasking, but text messaging while driving is not a good way to squeeze more out of your day.
Statistics show that drivers are six times more likely to become distracted and cause an accident if they are text messaging. Distracted drivers account for nearly 80 percent of all car crashes in the United States according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Top distractions while driving include: cell phone use, reaching for a moving object inside the vehicle like a toddler or pet, looking at an event or object outside the vehicle like a car crash, talking with passengers, applying make-up and fidgeting with controls like the radio.
“Driving while changing the radio is distracting enough, let alone taking your eyes off the road to type even a short sentence or two,” said Michigan State Medical Society President Richard E. Smith, MD, a Detroit obstetrician/gynecologist. “It’s very dangerous.”
One of the most widely known accidents caused by text messaging occurred in June 2008 in Rochester, New York when five teen girls were killed in a collision with a tractor. Police reports indicate that the driver of the vehicle was texting moments before the accident.
Six states prohibit the use of hand-held phones while driving, and 13 states prohibit text messaging while driving.
Dr. Smith said, “In the end, it’s not going to make much of a difference whether someone answers a text right away or within the next 20 minutes.”
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