Last years statistics show that 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 were injured due to texting and driving. Using cell phones while driving is not necessary and it can wait; too many innocent drivers and pedestrians are injured everyday due to texting and driving. The Teen Driver cell phone statistics shows that “ 60% of America admits to risky texting and driving (NDS)”. It really is not worth it when it comes to using a cell phone while driving. Banning the use of a cell phone while driving should be something we need to take serious while driving and should be illegal. Texting causes crashes, injury, and possible death.
Initially, texting and driving should be illegal is because it distracts the driver from the road. Another reason why is because it endangers the drivers around the person who is texting. The third reason why is because teens and young adults lack driving experience and combined with distractions can lead to crashes and death. “most of society thinks it is teens that cause all this madness”(TDS); 54% of teens say they have seen their parents on the phone texting or talking on the phone while driving. Banning the use of cell phones while driving should be enforced as a law because we lose too many people a year to something so foolish. The national driving statistics show that “texting while driving makes a driver twenty three times more likely to crash”(TDS). What is the point of putting your self at risk of twenty three times more likely to crash when texting and driving.
In addition, 94% of teens pledged to the “no texting and driving campaign” yet we are still having thousands of wrecks a day due to this issue. When texting and driving most teens think they would never crash when driving because they are too cautious of what is going on around them, but that is the complete opposite. Teenagers and young adults may think that they are grown up and can handle adult responsibilities but the fact of the matter is no one should be texting and driving period. It is not an adult privilege; it is a habit that many people need to break. Another study shows that texting and even just talking on your cell phone can make your reaction time as slow as 70 year olds.
Texting while driving has proved to be more dangerous than driving drunk. Drivers pose the same risk of injuring your self and others. If you wouldn’t drive drunk, then drivers should not drive and text. When texting, drivers are not concentrating on driving, sending or receiving a text requires you to fixate your eyes on the phone. This in turn causes you to take your eyes off the road. An accident can occur in the blink of an eye. The one to two second it takes to glance at your phone, is the same amount of time it takes to wreck, strike a pedestrian, and/or run off the road.
Ultimately some individuals still believe that texting and driving does not affect their motor skills they would be better off just waiting until they are at a complete stop to use it. Banning the use of cellphone while operating a motor vehicle should be in effect now and something everyone should reconsider while operating a vehicle.
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