Bad car accidents today are so common that they border on inevitability. According to car accidents statistics compiled by the insurance industry, a driver in the U.S. will get into accident once every 17.9 years. This means that if you started driving at age 16 like most Americans, then you’ll have been in at least one or more bad auto accidents by the time you’re 34.
There are several reasons to explain this phenomena, but one of the most common (and dangerous) causes of car accidents is distracted driving. This is any activity that that might divert a person’s attention away from the act of piloting a vehicle, including changing the radio, eating, drinking, putting makeup on, or using a navigation system. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it led to the death of 3,092 people and injured 416,000 more.
Chief among the activities that distract drivers and cause bad auto accidents is texting while driving. According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, texting while driving increases the chance of bad auto accidents by 23 times.
Yet, despite this clear and present danger, a shocking amount of people think that their ability to text while they drive won’t cause any bad auto accidents. In fact, 77% of young adults are either somewhat or very confident in their ability to text while driving, while 55% of young adult drivers claim that texting while driving is easy. After all, it only takes a couple of seconds, right?
Consider this, though. It takes a minimum of five seconds to create a text message. If traveling at the average highway speed limit of 55 miles per hour, then you just wen the entire length of a professional football field without paying attention to the road.
The sheer fact of the matter is that texting while driving causes bad auto accidents. That’s it. If you text while you drive, you need to stop, and you need to make sure your close friends and family stop, too. This is a great source for more.
