It’s no secret that technology is taking over, but it should not be taking our attention while we drive too. If you didn’t know, texting and driving is a fad; everyone is doing it. People are so occupied with their cell phones that they cannot even put them down while they drive. News flash; innocent people are being killed by these distracted drivers. The U.S needs a wakeup call! Everybody is now made aware by several different platforms such as commercials, or newspapers, so why do they still text and drive? There needs to be a better solution now! What will it take for people to stop texting while they are on the road?
Did you know?
• 23% of crashes that happened in 2011 were because of cell phones? Doesn’t sound like a huge percentage? Think twice, that’s 1.3 million crashes.
• 5 seconds is the minimal amount of time your attention is not on the road if you are on your phone. Think about it this way; it is equivalent to driving one whole football field and not looking if you’re traveling at least 55 mph. Scary right?
• Texting and driving gives you 23x more of a chance to crash your car. Better keep your eyes on the road instead.
• It’s easy they said! Wrong. 10% of teen drivers who text and drive go out of their lane. That is not safe for the teen or anyone else on the road.
• 1 in 5 drivers confess to surfing the web while driving. Just turn it off people!
Now that we’re all aware of very few of the dangers that comes with texting and driving, we can think of a solution on how to stop it. Recently, there has been a few apps that you can install to insure your teen driver or you are not driving and texting at the same time. There are a range of apps for Androids and iPhones so no excuses for anyone. If you’re not interested in paying the small fee an app might cost then there’s other options to pursue. One is to simply silence your phone, you won’t know when you get a notification so you won’t be tempted to answer. Another solution would be to completely turn it off. If you aren’t strong enough for either of those options then you can go ahead and store it in your glove box or trunk. Texting and driving puts everyone on the road in danger, is one text really worth somebody’s life? Please be considerate and put down your phone while on the road, it could save around 1 million lives.