Texting While Driving

I was driving home on the freeway last night and noticed a car in front of me slowing down and then speeding up and weaving out of the lane markers.  I thought for sure that this person was drunk or under the influence of some other drug.  As I got closer, I noticed the reason for this erratic behavior – the driver was texting while driving.
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According to Buzzle.com, a study by Virginia Tech Driving Institute revealed that those who resort to texting while driving are 23 times more likely to meet with an accident. A comparative study of texting while driving vs. drunk driving statistics published in a leading car magazine in the United States revealed that texting while driving is even more dangerous than drunk driving.  Studies reveal that a person who is texting while driving at the speed of 35 mph will cover 25 ft. before bringing the car to a complete halt as compared to a distance of 4 ft. which a drunk driver would cover at the same speed.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,  5,870 people died in car crashes in 2008, alone.  The same statistics revealed that 515,000 people were injured in various car crashes in the United States.  Around 28 percent of all crashes in 2008 were caused by drivers in the age group of 18 to 29, who admitted to texting while driving.

Just yesterday, I heard of a famous L.A. plastic surgeon who died in a car crash in Malibu.  A preliminary investigation revealed that he was probably texting while driving.

In 2008, a Metrolink train in Los Angeles crashed, killing 25 people and injuring scores of others.  It was determined that the engineer had been texting to a friend when the train crashed into another.

What does this have to do with life insurance, you might ask?  Well, people are dying…that’s what.  However, my intention here is not to get people to think about life insurance.  Rather, it’s to wake up to this cause of many unnecessary deaths, with a lot more to come, if this behavior isn’t changed.  I am compelled to write this post because I see people texting while driving on a daily basis and it’s been getting a lot more prevalent.

Here’s what needs to happen with this problem, as I see it – the same attention that’s given to drunk driving needs to be given to this behavior; public awareness campaigns need to be directed at the target age group that seems to be doing most of the texting while driving; fines for this behavior need to be high enough to at least cause one to pause before sending or reading a text (this would include large financial penalties and jail time for repeat offenders).

Parents need to have honest discussions with their driving-age children and give them the hard facts and statistics about this problem.  A good place to start is  Oprah Winfrey’s No-Phone Zone.  It has some sobering information on it.  Sit your driving age children down and visit the site with them: http://www.oprah.com/packages/no-phone-zone.html.

I appeal to those of you who are texting while driving.  Please stop doing it now – the life you save may be your own…or mine…or…???

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