636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries, 12,000 serious injuries, and 2,600 deaths each year according to www.txtresponsibly.org, all as a result of one thing: text messaging while driving.
This is especially common amongst teens, and is the cause of many fender-benders, as well as serious accidents.
Texting while driving is a form of distracted driving, and in many cases is as bad as having a blood alcohol concentration level of .08, which is the legal limit.
So why is this still such a common practice, we all know the affects that drunk driving has, why continue to put ourselves at risk with texting when it is just as bad?
We all see people that do this everyday, and some of us have even seen accidents where distracted driving is the cause, yet this doesn’t stop anyone from doing it. Is it that difficult to at least wait until you reach a stoplight, or pull over if it’s that important?
How would you feel if you were in an accident because someone else was texting, most of us wouldn’t be too happy with that other person, so why do we continue to risk it?
I guess the general consensus is that ‘no, it won’t happen to me,’ but you can’t guarantee that.
Seven states already have laws in place that ban using any hand-held communication device while driving, and here in Michigan that law is still a work in progress.
Michigan house bill 4394, which provides penalties for operating a motor vehicle while reading, writing, or sending a message on an electronic wireless device, is still pending.
Hopefully, when and if this law is enacted everyone will take texting while driving seriously, and realize the many negative consequences it can and will have.