Risky Texting

Matisse Ellison
Instructor Tackett
English 101
6 March 2013
Risky Texting
With the society we live in today and how much technology has taken over the world, I believe that it has become a difficult task for people to simply just put down the phone. Some people just don’t realize the dangers they face when being on the phone while driving or how many lives they are really putting at risk because you don’t really focus on anyone else but yourself when being in a vehicle. I just believe that the society doesn’t realize the penalties they would face if to cause an accident by simply sending a single text, which is why it seems okay to do so. I’m sure that accidents are caused everyday by texting and driving, but drivers feel that they won’t be caught ahead of time before anything dangerous were possibly to happen.
Studies come to show that dialing a cell phone increases the crash risk of a moving vehicle by three times, and other activities such as texting, takes the driver’s attention away for longer periods of time than other distractions (Teen Drivers Source). It isn’t every day that we, as a society, are educated about this so we are unaware of the fatalities that could be caused when taking the time out to check a text or answer a phone call. When we see that a text has been sent to our mobile device or if we have an incoming call, we don’t think about increasing our crash risk by three times, or how much of distraction it really could be to take only three seconds out of your time to read a text when so much could happen in that short amount of time. The minimal amount of time your attention is taken away from the road while texting is five seconds, and if you’re at least traveling at a speed of 55 miles per hour, this equals driving the length of a football field without looking at the road (Texting and Driving Safety). On most highways the maximum speed limit is from 60 to 70 miles per hour, so to be going any faster with that time span of looking away...