Texting While Driving: Getting To Know The Real Dangers
When it comes to texting while driving, it was not a huge concern a few years back. The main focus was on drinking and driving and how to stop that from happening. However, when 75% of teens say that their friends text and drive, it should be a major concern. This is especially true since we are dealing with new and inexperienced drivers on the road. So, lets take a look at the real dangers of texting while driving.
Texting While Driving Is More Dangerous
When we say more dangerous, we are not saying that drinking and driving is not dangerous. This is based on data that has been collected regarding both drinking while driving and distracted driving. In the last few years, it is estimated that roughly 2,700 teenagers were killed in drunk driving accidents. That is a scary statistic, however, it gets worse. For teenagers and young drivers, over 3,000 teens die every year in car crashes where the driver was distracted from texting while driving. That means eight people are killed every day and roughly 1,161 injuries from crashes that involved distracted driving.
Changes Must Happen
All but three states in this country have full bans on texting while driving. However, 10% of all drivers between the ages of 15 and 19 years old that were involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted drivers at the time the crash happened. This age group happens to be the largest proportion of drivers that were distracted at the time of the fatal crash. Texting while driving plays a huge part in those accidents. The number of injuries and deaths from distracted driving crashes will exceed those from drunk driving crashes.
One Possible Solution?
HuffPost reported on one possible solution, which would prohibit a cell phone from sending or receiving a text message while that phone was in motion. This would be a great solution to the distracted driving issue, as it would not allow drivers to send or read text messages wile they are driving. However, it would also have to not allow these teens to use Snapchat or Facebook also. The problem with this? It would also stop passengers in that moving vehicle from sending or receiving text messages also. Because of that, this solution will probably never see the light of day. Adding to that, distracted driving is not just texting while driving, so more issues would need to be addressed.
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