We’ve all heard the assemblies, the commercials, the health class lessons and the horror stories that surround the campaign against texting and driving.
Drivers, both teens and adults, are bombarded with messages against texting while driving. We’ve seen so many pictures of mangled steel frames and shattered windshields that they have almost lost their effect. But these messages deserve public attention.
Staff Editorial
According to itcanwait.com, 100,000 car crashes are caused per year by drivers who are texting, and those who text are 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident than those who drive undistracted, according totextinganddrivingsafety.com.
Despite these statistics, teens continue to drive under the influence of their phones. According to itcanwait.com, 75 percent of teens say texting while driving is common among their friends.Teens are affected by distracted drivers every day, whether they drive while texting or are hit by someone who is.
Ultimately, 11 teens die every day in accidents where drivers are texting, according to textinganddrivingsafety.com.
Resources designed for young drivers help curb texting at the wheel. Apps like AT&T Drive Mode, Verizon Safely Go and Sprint Safely Go will send automatic responses to incoming texts when they sense the car in motion, or allow a driver to dictate a personalized response, according to apple.com.
It Can Wait, a nation-wide campaign, is rallying drivers of all ages to sign a pledge not to text and drive, according toitcanwait.com.This year’s Hi’s Eye staff all pledged because we believe in the importance of this issue.
Our messsage isn’t new, but we need to realize that we, as individuals, are not exceptions to the statistics.Lives can be changed in the five seconds it takes to send a text and thousands of lives could be saved by pledging to never text and drive. When sending a text could be the choice between life or death, remember—it really can wait.