A woman turns on the TV, there is a news report on a 16-year-old driver that died while texting on the highway. Although this is something new, it has become common with the rise in the use of smartphones. It is said that at least 26% of all car crashes in 2014 involved a cell phone. This proves that there should be more laws regarding the use of cell phones and driving. Three reasons why you should not text and drive are because it causes a rise in your insurance rate, it diverts your focus off the road, and most importantly it causes many car accidents.
The first reason why teens should not text and drive is that the more teens get into accidents the higher the insurance rates. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 16 to 17-year old are more likely to be involved in car accidents than other drivers. Which in turn makes the insurance companies cost more for teen drivers. In, the year 2017 getting a ticket for using a cell phone while driving increases your insurance rate by 16%. Insurance companies are even using a tracking device app on smartphones to motivate safer driving by giving safe drivers rewards.
The second reason is that when you are driving you need your 100% attention on the road, but when you are looking at your phone you lose your sense of direction. As you look at your phone you lose your visual, manual and cognitive skills. Imagine what would happen if a child runs in front of your car and you don’t look up in time. How horrible would you feel if you were to crash into someone at that second, just to check an unimportant text message. In 2016 alone 3,450 people were killed, teens being the largest age group reported.
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The third and most important reason you should not text and drive is that it can cause many car accidents. According, to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ‘more than 3,100 people were killed and 424,000 were injured in crashes because of texting and driving’. ‘Also 20% of drivers 18 to 20 say that texting while driving doesn’t affect them, yet they have the highest rate of car crashes’.
When, you text and drive you are not looking at the road anymore but concentrating on something else. You don’t have knowledge of what’s going on around you, any car or person can get in front of your car in those 5 seconds you look down. At least if you focus on the road, if anything happens, you will be able to react in time. In conclusion, there is never a good reason to text and drive.
It can cause your car insurance rate to rise, diverts your focus, and cause’s car crashes. It is better to be safe than sorry, by texting before you start driving the car. Looking at a text someone sent you is not worth getting in a car accident. We need to do something to stop this from continuing to happen. ‘There are 32 states that are trying to limit these accidents by making bans against new drivers using a handheld device while driving’. Don’t be part of a statistic, don’t text and drive.
