Texting and Driving

You know you never do this, right?

Walt Mueller:

This morning I was reminded once again of just how much our world has changed thanks to technology. I was heading down the local interstate to meet a friend for breakfast in Lancaster. While I didn't look at the drivers of every car and truck I passed or that passed me (that would be dangerous you know!), I did spot several drivers splitting their eye time and concentration between the road and the device in their hands.

In an effort to imagine the equivalent behavior when I was first learning to drive forty years ago, here's the best that I could come up with. . . . my driver's ed teacher telling me to spend half of my driving time looking at the floor of the car. I know. . . it's absurd. But it's no coincidence that my first car accident (I was 16 and it wasn't my fault!) occurred when a man came around a corner too wide because he was looking on the floor of his car for a paper that had blown off his seat. Crash. Boom. My employer's pickup truck was totaled.

Some of the latest stats on teens who text while driving are frightening. In 2011, nearly 40% of high school students admitted to texting while driving at least once in the last thirty days. I'm guessing that the viral spread of smart phones has made that statistic obsolete. It's gotten so bad that experts are now calling texting while driving a "national epidemic."

Drinking and driving has now been eclipsed by texting and driving as the number one cause of teenage deaths on the road. The Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York reports that texting while driving has resulted in injuries to 300,000 teens each year. . . and 3,000 teen deaths.

Texting while driving is now widely considered more dangerous than drinking and driving. That's why my home state of Pennsylvania and numerous other states have outlawed the practice. But judging from what I see on the road, the law doesn't seem to be making much of a difference.

Here is a MythBusters episode where they test the drinking and driving vs. texting and driving scenario.

Safely Walk and Text at the Same Time

This is surely a needed service.

Stats on Texting and Driving

Walt Mueller:

I went on to our CPYU Digital Kids Initiative site this morning to look over ourdownloadable handout on "Texting While Driving." Give it a look. Download it. Pass it around. The handout includes these alarming facts: 

Cell Phones, Texting and Driving at a Glance:

• More than 4 out of 5 teen drivers admit to using their cell phone while driving.
• Research shows that hands-free cell phone use while driving is no less dangerous than using a hand-held phone. It's the conversation - not the type of device - that's the distraction.
• Over half of all teen drivers admit to texting or emailing while driving. Teenage and young adult drivers are the age group most likely to send a text or read an email while driving.
• Teens say that texting is the number one driving distraction.
• Texting and driving is a form of distraction. Almost 80 percent of all vehicle crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some type of driver inattention or distraction during the three seconds before the crash or near-crash.
• Talking on a cell phone while driving impairs drivers at a rate equal to a blood-alcohol level of 0.08.
• The National Safety Council estimates that at least 200,000 crashes a year are caused by texting and driving.
• Texting while driving results in 330,000 distracted driving injuries a year.
• About 6,000 people a year die as a result of using their phone while driving.

When You Text and Drive:

• You are four times more likely to cause an accident than when you drive drunk or talk on a cell phone.
• You are 23 times more likely to crash.
• You are taking your eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds. At 55 miles per hour, that equals driving the length of a football field while wearing a blindfold.
• Your response time diminishes greatly. The average time it takes a drunk driver to respond and apply the brakes is 4 times more than normal. The average time it takes a texting driver to respond and apply the brakes is 40 times more than normal. Still, most young drivers view texting and driving as less dangerous than drunk driving.
• You risk injuring/killing yourself and others. It results in car crashes that kill an average of 11 teenagers a day.