While it may seem like an obvious thing to avoid, the ubiquity of cell phones today has lead to texting while driving being an all-too-common sight on the road.If you find yourself tempted to text while driving, consider creating ways to make it more difficult to do so.
Try leaving your phone somewhere you can’t reach while you’re driving, or download one of the apps mentioned above.On the surface, texting while driving seems harmless enough. When you think about how long it takes to send a quick text message to someone, it’s really a matter of mere seconds.
Just don’t text and drive. It’s too dangerous and the risks are not worth it.But tests have shown that the minimum amount of time texting takes away from the focus on driving is 5 seconds. At just 55mph, that’s enough time to drive more than the length of an entire football field – more than enough space and time for an accident to happen.
Texting while driving has become such an epidemic that ad campaigns have been produced around the world to try to cut down on how much it happens. Laws have also been passed in a number of states to make texting or talking on the phone (without using hands free) illegal and subject to tickets and fines. And there are even apps that were engineered for some handsets to help users stop texting while on the road.Still, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver distraction (code for texting while driving) is the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes and 23% of all car accidents, the latter of which equals roughly 1.5 million crashes every year.
Texting while driving also makes a crash far more likely – up to 23 times more likely, in fact.Texting while driving is incredibly dangerous no matter who you are. It does not discriminate. Whether you just earned your license or you’ve been driving for 30 years, texting while driving is taking a risk. And not just for you but for anyone in your vehicle and anyone else on the road around you.
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