All of us have been guilty of it at one time or another. We get a message and reply, we need directions so we look them up, we are curious about something so we surf the web. It would not be so bad, if we were at home while doing this, instead, a lot of us are in our cars, DRIVING! Take a look around you the next time you are on the road. You see drivers going 80; one hand on the steering wheel, another holding a cell phone, all while taking turns looking ahead and reading info on their phones. Think about the lives that are being put at risk, the driver, passengers, and other people on the road.
It only takes a second for an accident to happen, and know one can predict what the other drivers on the road are going to do.
Keep in mind that there are now laws in various states that prohibit texting and driving.
Did you know:
20 percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. (NHTSA).
Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashed, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes). (NHTSA)
In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving. (FARS and GES)
The age group with the greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the under-20 age group – 16 percent of all drivers younger than 20 involved in fatal crashes were reported to have been distracted while driving. (NHTSA)
Drivers who use hand-held devices are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
Using a cell phone while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (Source: University of Utah)
Those are just a few facts, please don't text and drive. Keep yourself, your passengers and other drivers in mind when driving, don't drive distracted!
