Nine out of ten teens expect a reply to their personal messages, whether it be email or text message, within five minutes or less. Since most of them feel this way, they feel pressure to respond in a “timely” manner even if that means texting while driving. Though this survey was about teens, individuals between 21-24 years of age are the most likely to send a message or use the phone while driving.
Every single day across the United States nine people die from an accident caused by texting and driving or other forms of distracted driving. There are three types of distracted driving: visual, manual, and cognitive. This includes taking your eyes off the road, hands off the wheel, and your mind off the task at hand. I don’t know what is scarier; that 98 percent of adults agree that texting and driving is unsafe, or that almost half, 49 percent, still do it anyway.
Holding the phone up to the windshield for “more visibility” is not acceptable. Every time you take your eyes off of the road for more than five seconds — the average time someone glances at a text — while traveling 55 mph you travel the distance of a football field.
I could fill this page up with fact after fact after fact. Despite the facts, the YouTube videos meant to scare you out of texting, and the plea of your loved ones, most of you will still continue to text, or use your phone in some manner while driving.
Her Campus at Oregon State is partnering with the It Can Wait campaign. The It Can Wait campaign believes that no text is worth your life. They encourage downloading their mobile phone app that silences your phone calls and auto-replies for people who have paid service. If you don’t want to pay for service, #X let’s your friends and family know that you are behind the wheel and unable to reply. Look at that last text you wrote. Is it worth your life?
I know mine isn’t.