subject: Dangers Of Texting While Driving [print this page] If you have ever driven on the highway and looked over at the car next to you, the chances are you have seen people getting dressed, shaving, putting on makeup, brushing their teeth, eating, talking on the phone, or yelling at their kids. These are pretty normal occurrences, but each of them is distracting and potentially lethal while operating a vehicle in motion.
Though everyone thinks they are amazing at multi-tasking, the truth is that no one is perfect at it. While you are doing all or any of these other things that take your mind and your eyes off of the road, you are putting your life and the life of other motorists on the line.
If you swerve just a little bit, you could go into the next lane and hit the cars surrounding you. If the person in front of you stops suddenly, and you react even a fraction of a second slower you could slam into them, causing damage to both vehicles, and may even cause injury or death.
It used to be that parents were concerned with their kids pushing the button on the radio to change the station. That particular task can be done with one hand and without taking your eyes off of the road.
Now parents are concerned with their kids using a GPS system, MP3 players, and cell phones. All three of these electronic devices require your eyes and - often times - both hands.
Locations should be programmed into the GPS before you hit the road, this makes for easier use and safer driving conditions. As for messing around with an MP3 player, that should be a job for the passenger in the vehicle.
Presents on the radio are one thing, but MP3 players don't have easy present buttons that can be pushed to change the song. Instead you have to navigate through the menu and scroll down until you find the music you want to listen to.
The cell phone is a fairly new problem, but with talking, texting, emailing, and surfing the web, there are many opportunities to get distracted. There are now many hands-free devices that people use while talking on their cell phone in the car.
These allow drivers to keep both hands on the wheel at all times. This significantly helps reduce the chances of an accident, but a more severe problem than talking in texting, emailing, and surfing the web.
These require both hands and your eyes to function. This means that people are steering with their knee, or just not steering at all.
Obviously this is extremely dangerous, because is a distraction from the road and surrounding vehicles. It also gives you a significant delay on reaction response.
Any time your attention is taken off of the road, it is a set up for an accident. People who drive know that potential dangers come up fast when you are driving.
If you are distracted, you cannot react appropriately or in time. Research studies have shown that texting while driving a truck increased the risk of accident by a stunning 2320 percent.
If you dial a number into your cell phone while driving a car, you increase the risk of an accident by 280 percent. If you use your phone while driving a heavy vehicle, your chances of an accident increase by 590 percent.
The researcher concluded that, when texting, a person's eyes are off of the road for enough time to travel along a road the length of a football field while going 55 miles per hour. That is a long time to not be paying attention to what is happening in front of you.
The study states that the time not looking at the road is what contributes to the highest number of accidents. Using the keyboard on your phone while driving is a potentially lethal mistake that could not only affect your life, but your family and other motorists.
