Don't Text and Drive

Source:
MSNBC

The title of this post may seem like common sense to some people. In fact, many people may be rolling their eyes at me for posting it. Others will most likely shrug it off and not read it or read it with the burning question: "Why?". Hundreds of people, if not millions, use their phone while driving and while it is illegal in some places to talk on the phone while driving it may not be illegal to text while driving. Texting is just as big a problem as talking on the phone... as Nicholas Sparks found out.

Sparks was committing a double foul on the road. Two cell phones at the same time while driving. Texting with one and talking with the other. Quickly Mr. Sparks drove his tow truck into the back of another truck and then into a pool. New York does not have a law against texting in effect at this point in time, though there is one set to go in effect in November, so they can only arrest him with driving while speaking on the phone.

New York isn't alone in not having a full blown anti-texting law. In fact, only ten states do have one that effects all drivers. Eight other states have passed laws agaisnt texting but they have yet to go into effect. When they do a total of eighteen states will have laws against everyone texting while driving no matter the age or area. Some states currently have laws against doing it at a younger age or while in a school zone but this practice isn't fixing the problem at all and eighteen out of fifty is only around two-fifths of the total number.

Studies have recently begun to cover texting. The Transportation Institute at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University released findings that someone texting is twenty-three times more likely to crash than someone not hampered by a cell phone at all and four times more likely to crash than someone using a cell phone. I won't call this conclusive because there are many more studies to be had... I would, however, say that we're all better off finding something to unglue the phone from our hands while driving. If not for the safety of yourself then do it for the safety of those you may potentially kill. If you live in Utah you face fifteen years for killing someone while driving and texting. Pretty harsh... but maybe it's exactly what we need to finally get people to shut the phone off while on the road.