You Should Not Talk or Text While Driving | Teen Ink

You Should Not Talk or Text While Driving

December 3, 2010
By Kassi13 BRONZE, Evanston, Wyoming
Kassi13 BRONZE, Evanston, Wyoming
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Do you or a family member talk or text while driving? Well I'll put this right to the point.......


DON'T!!!!
You may not know all that is at risk or even anything about it.
Anyway, let's get to it. Do you know whom you might be endangering? A brother, sister, cousins, nieces, nephews, mother, father, and how about a baby in the back seat? Or even the person in the other car has someone precious to him or her? And WHAT about you?

Did you know that 6,000 people died in the year 2008 due to distractive driving? According to “ Edgar Snyder & Association”. Which is a law firm that did several surveys. Which also found that 56% of volunteer teenagers admit to talking while driving. Whereas only 13% of volunteer teenagers admit to texting while driving. So they suspect that many more people do these distractive tasks. If you want to know more about their surveys go to www.edgarsnyder.com

Unfortunately, I have been in a car with a distractive driver. I was with my aunt Kate who drives well....... I guess you call it a Utarted. No offense to anyone but back to my point. She was driving fast about 80 miles an hour, when her friend texted her. Without any concern at all she picked up her phone and stated to text back. If you can imagine we started to drift into the other lane. Luckily she caught herself before another driver came. And the whole time I was shaking in my seat with worry. And me …........ only ten years old. But good thing nothing bad happened. I hope it never happens again.

Now according to the “University Of Utah Psychologists” their study shows that people who drive while they are on their phones are as impaired as an intoxicated driver. The leader of the study David Strayer confirms that when driving while on your phone & the intoxicated driver at VERY similar impairment.

Now that I've caught your interest you may ask what is being done about this intriguing topic? Well let me you at ease. Lately, in states like Wyoming, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Washington, as well as Washington D.C., Oregon, Delaware, and many more are taking action. All though many are not completely banning it, most just prohibit certain things. Like in Wyoming if you are caught doing these things you will get fined $75. So doesn't it make sense to just not do it? If you want to know more go to www.ghsa.org.

However, there are some who people think talking or texting while driving does not distract their driving abilities. According to my Aunt Kate..... Yes the same one who scared me white...... whom I've interviewed, believes that it does not distract her from driving. But I beg to differ.

Now for your part. When you need to use your cell phone simply just find a place to pull off the road, or ask a passenger to help by talking to the person for you or text what you want to say. Another thing you can do is try to stay away from emotional thing so that you don't end up in an accident. Also there have been offering for teen drivers, which is called, “Teen Driver Safety Week”. Along with just the parents trying to pinch in by talking to their teens. These are a few things that are being done. You can help with these simple things to help keep your community safe as well as your loved ones.


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This article has 1 comment.


lalalala said...
on Oct. 14 2013 at 9:44 am
it is good because it has facts