The U.S. Transportation Secretary reported that 5,870 people were killed and 515,000 were injured as a result of crashes resulting from driver distraction which is the use of a cell phone either by talking, emailing or texting. Some recent studies have even opined that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated.
Most would never consider driving while intoxicated, yet we text with abandon. Just think about it. While driving at 60 miles per hour you are covering 88 feet per second. Ding ding you have a text. You look down to read it and manage to keep your car in a straight path. Than in trying to text and answer you move the steering wheel just a hair and bam!! One second later you’re wrapped around a telephone pole or worse yet head on with another vehicle. Why do we do it? We just don’t believe it will happen to us.
Education and legal enforcement is the only way it can happen. My son just turned 15, and will be taking the Louisiana drivers permit test. I will be curious to see if there are any questions addressing the dangers of cell phone use. Not a single State in the U.S. currently has a complete cell phone ban, but 9 have a hands free requirement. 21 states completely ban cell phone use for novice drivers and 14 states ban cell phone use for school bus drivers. Text messaging is banned in only 18 states. Finally only half our states allow law enforcement to stop a driver for these violations unless there is another violation permitting a stop.
We must start with first time drivers and not stop until everyone understands the dangers, and we must give the laws more teeth and allow law enforcement to stop and ticket distracted drivers who are using cell phones. If we don’t; the younger generation, who can’t go without texting for 10 minutes, will undoubtedly be involved in increasing numbers of fatal car crashes. Don’t text me in the next half hour I’m driving home and won’t text you back until I park my car!
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
