I will admit right now that the urge to use your phone while driving is strong. Especially if you’re making an hour long trip alone. In an age that relies on technology so much, being without your phone really can be one of the worst things ever. But believe me when I say it is not worth the risk. I know here at Your Parenting Info the topic of texting and driving has been touched briefly before, but never to the nitty gritty details.
If you are on the highway doing 55+ and look at your phone for only a few second, let’s say five, you have already traveled the length of a football field. At that time another driver may have merged into your lane without you knowing and you just hit them, or you drifted lanes without your knowledge. Using your phone while you drive makes you 23 times more likely to get into a car accident. That is six times more likely than drunk driving.
Texting and driving is currently the leading cause of car accidents in teens, and also the leading cause of death in car accidents. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety discovered that in sixty percent of the moderate to severe crashes that they looked into texting and driving, or distracted driving, was the main cause of the crash. And that was only the crashes they looked into, there are so many that happen daily.
One thing to think about is would you let your great grandmother drive? If you answered no, you shouldn’t be using your phone. By using your phone while you drive, you have the reaction time of a seventy year old, at best. In 2011 23% of all auto collisions were caused by texting and driving, that’s 1.3 million car accidents. Now it causes 1.6 million crashes a year. At any given point in time 660,000 people are using or attempting to use their phone while they drive.
Texting and driving is the leading cause of death with teens, just in general. This beats out alcohol poisoning and drunk driving. About eleven teens die daily because of texting and driving, and more than 3,000 die yearly because of texting and driving.
And it isn’t just texting and driving, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter are just as dangerous. Just because you aren’t physically typing a message does not make using your phone any safer. If you absolutely need to use your phone, pull over. It could save your life, and someone else’s. Do you want to be just another statistic?