Monday, November 12, 2012

Friends don't let Friends Text and Drive

At some point or other, we’ve all been guilty of it probably.  I know many that are guilty of it every day.  Even before the “No text while driving” law passed in the state of Michigan, I avoided texting while driving.  I knew that it was dangerous and could potentially cause an accident.  In Adam Popescu’s article on Read Write Web, he claims, Distracted driving killed more than 3,000 Americans in 2010,” and “Last year 11% of all U.S. crashes were attributed to cell phone use.” Those are scary statistics. 
The fact is that texting while driving is extremely hazardous to yourself and those in other vehicles around you.   I honestly love to talk on the phone while driving.  I do not believe that it impairs my attention or reaction time – too much.  If you’re not talking on the phone, you’re adjusting the radio or reaching for something in your purse.  Unfortunately, we live in a world where everyone is a distracted driver.  Why is it that we’re bored when we’re driving?
Probably most people who text while driving have experienced ‘close calls.’  I label a ‘close call’ as a near-accident situation, a veer while driving, or pretty much anything that makes your heart race a little bit.  Experiencing a close call, for me, was enough to make me not text while driving – ever.  Why don’t other people who experience close calls learn their lesson?  Does it take an accident or even a death to make you realize that a text just isn’t worth it?

2 comments:

  1. You are right when you say we are all guilty of this but there are also other things we shouldnt be doing while driving as well. Eating, talking on our cell phone unless it is a hands free call, putting on makeup, getting dressed (yes I have seen it), reading, etc. Are any of these things worth it? And you are right those are scary statistics. It is unfortunate that those statistics exist but as far as the laws go, where do they end?

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  2. As far as I know I have never texted while driving unless you count me sending a text while going about 1 mile per hour during the 200 feet before I get to the stop sign on my little dead end street. I also am guilty of not wearing my seat belt sometimes during this time. I have though done something just as dangerous as texting that people don't even think about which is putting in new coordinates into a GPS unit. I have done this many times while going down the road. Is it unsafe very much so, and after thinking about it I no longer do this either.

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