The Danges of using a cell phone while driving
It seems that sending a text message is the preferred method to cummicate for millions of cell phone users. More and more people on the road are texting while driving. This has lead to an increase in accidents.
In a recent accident, that killed a 17 year old girl from Eureka Illinois, the data recovered from her cell phone revealed that she had been texting when she lost control of her car.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number one cause of death for teenagers between the ages of 16 and 20 is auto accidents. Accidents take the life of more than 5000 teenagers annually.
The Virgina Tech Transportation Insitute found in a recent study that drivers who were texting while behind the wheel had a risk of being in an accident 23 times greater than a driver who was not texting. The study revealed that texting is much more dangerous than other activities that distract drivers. Drivers who texted spent about 5 seconds at time looking at their phones while texting.
Car and Driver editor Eddie Alterman conducted an experiment which showed that texting while behind the wheel impacted drivers more negatively than being drunk. Alterman found that being intoxicated required an additional four feet of stopping distance at 70 mph. However, reading a cell phone message required 36 more feet of stopping distance while texting required 70 more feet of stopping distance.
In the US, 14 states and Washington DC have banned texting wihle driving.
