Texting While Driving Kills Teens Among 6,000 Annual Traffic Fatalities
Today’s youths are growing up almost as attached to their cell phones, PDA’s, iPod’s and other mobile electronic devices as they were upon birth to an umbilical cord. By the time they learn to drive, they have the habit and won’t let go. The trouble is, driving while calling, texting or checking the Internet can be fatal.
Some recent research indicates teen car crash traffic accident fatalities have increased, and this is due to two things: a rising rate of teens driving at night, and a rising rate of teens who use a cell phone or send or receive text messages while driving.
In the years between 1999 and 2008, nighttime fatal car crashes with teen drivers rose by 10 per cent. Night driving deaths increased at a lesser rate for older drivers, and driving fatalities overall declined in this time.
Bernie Fetts, a senior research specialist for the Texas Transportation Institute, told the Associated Press that the increased deaths arise from a “perfect storm” of factors. One such factor is driving at night, which is inherently more dangerous for anyone in any age group. Another is calling or texting while driving, which compromises a person’s ability to drive.
Many teens may believe otherwise, since they’re so adept at sending text messages that it feels almost like breathing to them. But that doesn’t mean their attention to texting doesn’t divert them from full attention to their driving. And it doesn’t mean that a moment’s inattention while driving can prove fatal. About 6,000 people will die this year due to drivers talking, texting or emailing, while another 500,000 will be injured.
Americans are starting to become alarmed about the severe effects of texting or calling while driving. That’s why 23 states so far have passed laws to ban texting while driving. The national organization FocusDriven, based in Grapevine, TX, was created to fight distracted driving due to cell phones or texting, much as Mothers Against Drunk Driving was formed to fight DUI car crashes.
Talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey has weighed in with her own initiative, a pledge signup by teens called a “No Phone Zone.” By signing, teens avow that they will not text or use their cell phone while driving.
Jim S. Adler & Associates strongly endorses such safe driving initiatives and exhorts all drivers of all ages to save their phone calls and texts for a proper time – when they aren’t responsible for guiding a multi-ton vehicle through complicated traffic at often high speeds. Teens may say such calling and texting won’t be enough to divert them from driving safely, but those who have died in texting car accidents indicate otherwise. Texting car crash accidents occur daily, and your teen’s surprise first time may prove to be their fatal final time.
Jim S. Adler & Associates is a longtime Texas personal injury law firm with offices in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Channelview. The law firm offers a free case review and represents victims of auto, car, SUV, truck, motorcycle, bus and other traffic accidents, as well as drunk driving accidents.
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