Your life is worth more than a text message. Texting while driving is dangerous, as it increases the risk of you getting into an accident. These accidents can often result in serious injury or in some cases death.
The thing about it is that you might be tempted to think that it’s just teenagers who are texting while driving. But that’s not the case. Anyone fits the profile, even police officers. There are lots of driving and texting horror stories replete with serious injuries, death, as well as jail time. Your life is worth more than a text message! Don’t text and drive.
Why Texting While Driving is Dangerous
Texting while driving is dangerous because you take your eyes off the road to do it. There are way too many people driving on the road these days and doing crazy things, for anyone to be taking their eyes off the road even for a minute. So many things can go wrong in a minute if you are not paying attention while driving.
What most people may not know is that using a handheld phone is controlled process. That means you have to focus on the activity or pay attention to what you are doing. Far less for texting!
Driving a vehicle is also a controlled process so driving while using a phone is NOT a good idea. Doing that means you are trying to do two (2) controlled processes at the same. In other words, you are trying to do two activities that require your full attention in order for them to be done successfully. In a case like this, you’ll end up paying attention to one activity more than the other.
You cannot properly focus on two controlled processes at the same time. It’s not like you are chewing gum (automatic process) while driving (controlled process). However, for an activity like texting while driving, you are likely to lose focus on one over the other. You are likely to take your eyes off the road to text. Focusing on your phone, means you are not focusing on driving. Hence the bans against using a hand held cell phone while driving.
Driver charged with manslaughter
ABC news carried a story about a driver charged with vehicular manslaughter after hitting a pedestrian. Now, the driver in question did not hit the pedestrian. But while she was texting, she rear ended a vehicle which resulted in that vehicle hitting the pedestrian. This is merely one narrative. There are so many more that can be found with pretty much the same ending; death or serious injury.
Out of curiosity, I decided to check out the comments people were leaving on this particular story. One person suggested that cars should be equipped to prevent people from using their cell phones while driving. It sounds like a good idea, but…
The thing is, we can’t always rely on someone or something else to help keep us responsible. We need to care enough to exercise some level of self-control when it comes to how we use our cell phones while driving. How hard is it to do the right thing on your own? However, having a dash cam in your vehicle would definitely aid in making you a bit more conscious of your driving on the road.
The texting while driving statistics show just how blasé some people are when it comes to driving and using a cell phone. Despite the admonition to avoid doing so, people are still using hand held their cell phones and texting while driving.
The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year. Nearly 390,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving
Now that’s a statistic that you probably did not know about. But clearly this is a serious issue.
Yes it Can Happen to You Too
Some people always feel that it can’t happen to them. They think that they’ll be the safe one texting while driving. But guess what? No one is exempt form anything happening to them, good or bad. So disabuse yourself of that crazy idea, because it CAN happen to you as well.
The 1.6 million crashes and 390,000 injuries were preventable. They all stemmed from someone doing something they should not have been doing while driving.
One way to prevent texting while driving is simply to avoid doing it. It’s much better to get yourself a hands free device you can use in your vehicle. But text messages can wait. It’s not worth sacrificing your life over, or someone else’s.
Your life is worth more than a text message, treat it as such. Be smart, don’t text while driving.
