…especially when it changes and ends lives.
The dreaded… texting while driving.
Now that it's nearing Labor Day which means back to school for many; whether your in K-12 or college, it's still going back to school and that many more people out on the road during the morning and afternoon hours.
A study by AEI-Brookings Joint Center shows 1 in 10 drivers on the freeway are talking on their cell phones and actually are more impaired than if they had been on a drinking binge.
The study used a driving simulator to test the effects of cell phone use vs. the effects of driving while intoxicated.
When taking into account driving conditions and other factors, drivers on cell phones were more impaired than those who had been drinking. Using a hands-free device did not make a difference.
"It's not necessarily the device that distracts the driver," said AAA Arizona's Linda Gorman. It's the fact that their mind is taken off the task at hand. So, it's the conversation in that instance that's distracting them."
Some states have banned drivers from talking on cell phones, and Gorman said AAA is "open" to that happening in Arizona.
"We would look at any sort of legislation that was proposed to see what was in the best interests of the motorists and also in regards to enforcing." she said.
Gorman has a theory about why the study found that drunken drivers do better than talking drivers.
"They know that they've had alcohol, there's that understanding that alcohol can impair you," she said. "While it's still extremely dangerous, a lot of times those people (drunks) will drive slower. They will try, albeit unsuccessfully, to focus their mind 100 percent on the road."
Gorman added, "People think nothing of picking up the phone and talking on the phone while they're driving. So they don't even know they're impaired in a sense. They actually think that they're paying attention."
Many of the distracted drivers out there could be teenagers. The number of teens with cell phones has jumped dramatically over the past four years, and the Pew Internet and American Life Project found 43 perfect of those 16 and 17 said they talk on cell phones while driving, while nearly 25 percent said they text while driving.
I'm guilty of it all myself.
I'll be the first one to tell you that I text and drive and on occasion talk and drive; but mainly texting or looking for something online on my iPhone that apparently absolutelycannotwaitanother45minutesuntiligethome.
You are not invincible.
Remember that. I need to remember it too.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I definitely have done it before myself. The texting most often but also the talking on the phone while driver. Hell, I'd probably be online on my phone is my phone wasn't an old piece of junk.
We definitely need to remember that things like that can WAIT. It's not worth hurting ourselves or someone else over.