Practice Safe Text

Practice Safe Text
A beep signals from the driver’s phone. She goes to grab it and take a look and sees her friend would like to know where she wants to go tonight. It only takes a minute for her to open her phone and respond to the text, but it also only takes a minute for her life to be over. Hundreds of teenagers and adults across the nation reach for their phones and decide to text while drive. They are making the decision that at that moment a text message is more important than their lives. Potential effects of texting while driving are so harmful that stricter laws need to be in place.
Eyes are the most important thing needed when driving, and when people are not paying attention and they’re eyes are not on the road, a lot of harm can be caused. It is not out of the ordinary to see someone glancing down at his/her phone while they’re driving. Texting while driving can make a young driver’s reaction time as slow as that of a 70-year-old. “Drivers sending or receiving texts take their eyes off the road for at least 5 seconds which is enough to cover an entire football field, and one could only imagine the tremendous amount of damage that can be done driving across a football field with unopened eyes” (textinganddrivingstatistics). When anyone is first taught how to drive, they learn to keep their hands on the wheel, and their eyes on the road. But these simple rules are being disobeyed on a daily basis due to texting and driving.

Across the country, studies have conclusively shown the dangers of cell phone use and texting while driving. Statistics of deaths due to texting while driving will continue to increase unless preventative measures are taken by individuals, companies and parents. “There are 1.6 million crashes each year on U.S. roadways involve talking on a cell phone or texting, while 200,000 accidents involve drivers who are texting while operating their vehicle” (distractionlawyer). Texting while driving can lead to a very dangerous outcome, like injuries, or even worse, death. “Out of the 1.6 million car crashes, there has been a result of 6,000 deaths, and a half a million injuries” (edgarsynder). Most people would think that drunk driving is worse than texting and driving, but it is eight times more likely to get killed by a driver who is texting, then killed by a driver who is drinking. “Texting increases our crash rate by at least 8 and perhaps as many as 168 times” (distractionlawyer). There is nothing sadder than seeing someone who lost their life over a pointless text that could have waited. Because of all the dangerous effects on texting and driving, we need to enforce stricter punishments. A lot of people don’t know that they can actually get in trouble for texting and driving. Texting and driving laws state that “If caught, one can be cited for an infraction for violating laws with a first time fine starting at 20 dollars and having a maximum amount of 50 dollars for every subsequent ticket, but fines will grow with repeated offenses”(cellphoneandtextinglaws). Under some laws serious repeat offenders may even face jail time. “It is likely that he/she may get points taken off their driver’s license in certain states which use the point system” (cellphoneandtextinglaws). Attending Court is a requirement, which

could greatly interrupt a person’s school/ and or work schedule. Personally, I believe we should make stricter laws because people might care enough about the punishment not to text and drive. If we make the law stricter in every state less people will text, and more people will not get into accidents, or worse die. There is absolutely no such thing as a perfect driver, let alone somebody being able to drive perfectly while texting. No matter how advanced the technology may be it will still be a constant distraction, taking one’s attention away from the road. Texting puts people’s life and the lives of other drivers around you at risk. One minute someone can be texting a friend on there way home from the store, and the next minute that person could be waking up in a hospital bed with serious injuries covering their body wondering what happened.