Is a text, seriously worth losing your life? Did you know that according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death of American teenagers with the number one cause of these deaths being the use of wireless devices?
Did you know that using a cell phone while driving, whether hands free or hand held is extremely dangerous. There have been numerous studies done regarding texting and a driver’s reaction time. Most of these studies have found that those who text and drive have a slower reaction time than those driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit!
Heather, a responsible 19-year-old college student, was late returning home from work. Her worried parents set out to look for her when they drove upon an accident scene. To their horror, they saw their daughter’s vehicle completely demolished. She had been in a car accident. Heather was texting while driving and slammed into a guard rail going 60 mph. She died instantly.
What was her final text?
“Hey, you and I need to hang sometime :)
alright cool :)”
Although we all know the dangers of texting while driving, it is still shocking to see, over and over again, how a simple text message can be life changing. Texts like “LOL”, “Where r u” and “Yeah” are small, yet they were the last words by teenagers who were killed because they took their eyes off the road.
How could something so simple take a life?
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, texting and driving involves all three types of distracted driving, which are visual, manual and cognitive. Any distraction can lead to an accident, but texting can lead to death. That text can wait.