The mobile phone has made our lives so much easier with its ability to keep us in touch with various facets of our lives. Communications have improved with its widespread use. However, when combined with driving, the mobile phone doesn’t receive such positive accolades. Actually, since the short message service (SMS), also known as texting, was introduced, mobile phones have made driving even more hazardous.
Since the beginning of the ability to send short text messages, many people have also realized the dangers of doing this while driving. However, given the convenience as well as the short nature of these messages, people still continue to do this dangerous driving habit. As a result, there is a growing incidence of car accidents that occur due to texting while driving.
When texting is paired with driving, this is an equation for disaster. Driving requires that the operator of the vehicle be fully cognizant of their surroundings. When they take their eyes off of the road, albeit often briefly, the danger of having a collision exponentially increases. Typically the eyes on average are averted from the road about 5 seconds to compose the text message. This is a sufficient amount of time for another vehicle to stop in front of you or something to appear in your path such as an animal or pedestrian.
When a person makes the choice to text while driving, their choice impacts not only them but also the other people on the road and pedestrians. Not only is texting dangerous because it averts one’s gaze from the road but it also distracts the mind as you are thinking about what you are writing. This can slow your reactions to things which could cause an accident. Some experts say the best practice is to put your phone on silent when driving. This way you will not know if anyone has sent you a text. They also recommend that if a driver simply must send a text message, they need to pull over.