Think about it. You are sitting at home texting, completely engrossed in the conversation.  Once you start driving, the conversation still. One of the most recent and tragic epidemics to face our country is the deadly combination of texting and driving. Two of the most enjoyed past times of any teenager, this deadly combination of driving and texting is more common than you might think. Studies show 48% of young Americans from 12-17 say they've been in a car while the driver was texting. While a driver who texts on the road was 23.2 times more likely to get into an accident than a driver paying full attention. Sure, it seems so easy to reply to that text while at a red light. But think about it; how long does it take you to reply to that text? Try closing your eyes while driving for that long. For every six seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends four and a half of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks. Some may think, “it is not that hard to do, all you have to do is look up!” However, this is not always the case. For some, it may be too late. Usage of cell phones can reduce a young driver’s reactivity time to that of a 70 year old. Perhaps the most shocking aspect is the amount of crashes this can cause.  Four out of every five accidents (80%) are attributed to distracted drivers. In contrast, drunk drivers account for roughly one out of three (33%) of all accidents nationally. It is quite disturbing to know that intoxicated people driving on the roads have more control of their surroundings than a sober person texting on their cell phone. Who would have guessed? In 2008 almost six thousand people were killed and a half-million were injured in crashes related to driver distraction. So next time you think a text is that important, think about the lives of you and others around you first.