Our precious 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, was killed almost one year ago in a completely preventable car crash that involved distracted driving. While there was more to this particular crash than simply being distracted, being distracted could have been a factor. April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. I want to share with you a paper that my 14-year-old daughter, Mary, wrote for her college dual enrollment class on texting while driving. She had wanted to focus on distracted driving, but statistics for such a broad topic are not readily available.
Texting is usually seen as the biggest source of distracted driving, however, anything that takes your focus and vision off of the road is distracted driving. True accidents are caused by events outside of your control, for example, a deer running out in front of you. I would venture to say that most accidents are preventable if ALL drivers would follow the rules of the road and PAY ATTENTION. There have been many technological advances since the 1990’s, but perhaps the most popular and widely used invention is the cell phone with text-messaging capabilities. While this is an amazing innovation for keeping in touch and has certainly made life easier, there are some drastic drawbacks to this relatively new device. The cell phone that allows teens to call home before leaving school or work is the same phone that causes them to become distracted when used while driving. Distracted driving is rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous epidemics of our time, with an estimated 660,000 people using their phone while driving during the day, many of which are causing accidents resulting in property damage, injury, and loss of life.
While any driver can become distracted, the rate is significantly higher for teens. This age range is comprised of mostly new and inexperienced drivers, who are not only more likely to text while driving, but also more likely to speed and to not wear a seatbelt. These actions coupled together make teenagers more susceptible to crashes resulting in injury or death. It is well-known that people under the age of twenty are much more impressionable than those higher in age and it is of utmost importance that these new drivers understand the dangerous and often fatal consequences of taking their eyes off the road. Do not let this become a habit. Just because last time that one text didn’t cause a car crash, doesn’t mean the next one won’t.
While most teenagers understand some of the dangers that come from texting and driving, they most likely don’t recognize the severity of this issue. You may think a quick text won’t mean anything and that your eyes will be back on the road in just a few seconds. That may be true, but consider this: the average vehicle on the road today weighs over four thousand pounds, and with each year automobile manufacturers pack on even more weight than before. Now taking this same four-thousand-pound vehicle traveling at a speed of fifty-five miles per hour, this vehicle will cover the length of a whole football field in only five seconds. Being distracted by a text, email alert, phone call, etc. for only five seconds means that the driver has traveled one hundred twenty yards blindly. Now imagine being distracted for just one minute. You’ve now traveled nearly an entire mile.
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