The Responsibility Project^®. Exploring what it means to do the right thing

Texting and Driving

8 Comments

May 6, 2010 by Discovery Education

Have you ever seen your child or student more involved or focused on something than when he or she is sending text messages to friends? If you answer no to this, you’re probably not alone.Cell phones have become an indispensable accessory for the vast majority of U.S. teenagers. Cell phones were designed to make us more reachable, yet they have taken on a new life over the past few years. Now that same phone serves numerous purposes, including texting, taking photos, listening to music, playing games and more. What a benefit to be able to increase our productivity by multi‐tasking in our idle moments.

Unfortunately, with the advent of texting in the hands of teenagers, cell phones can clearly cause trouble. The desire to stay connected is so strong for teens and their parents that safety sometimes takes a backseat to staying in touch with friends and family.

As a teen, your child or student is already a novice behind the wheel. Now with the added draw to stay in constant contact through texting, it’s your job to help them understand how distracting and troublesome it is to text while driving.

According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project report, a quarter of U.S. teens ages 16 to 17 who have cell phones say they text while driving, and almost half of Americans ages 12 to 17 say they've been in cars with someone who texted while behind the wheel. In the study, teens reported that their parents are often texting as well.

Obviously, the desire to communicate with the outside world while behind the wheel is a strong one, and probably more so for teens than anyone else. Sadly, the consequences can be deadly.

Fortunately, the government instituted a national ban on texting by truck and bus drivers. While such a ban does not yet exist uniformly throughout the country, different states have varying degrees of restrictions. For instance, 23 states and Washington, D.C. ban all cell use by novice drivers, and 21 states, Washington, D.C. and Guam ban texting for all drivers. For more information about cell phone and texting laws in your state go to: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

As parents and teachers, it’s important to find ways to discourage our teens from texting while behind the wheel.

Oprah Winfrey has taken on this issue with her “No Phone Zone” campaign against distracted driving. In January 2010, Oprah devoted an entire episode to her fight against using cell phones in cars – be it texting or making calls. With her crusade, Oprah has asked celebrities who come on her show to sign her No Phone Zone pledge.

Activities, Tips and Additional Information

Text messaging while behind the wheel tops the list as the biggest distraction while driving, according to a 2007 study by the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) and Liberty Mutual Insurance Group. The study, which surveyed more than 900 teens from 26 high schools nationwide, revealed that texting while driving is becoming as dangerous as drinking and driving, in terms of inhibiting a teen’s driving abilities. Here are some ways you can nip the texting bug in the bud, or work to curtail it if it’s already something your teens or students are doing while behind the wheel.

Have them sign the Oprah “No Phone Zone” pledge by going to: http://responsibilityproject.com/special-features/no-phone-zone/pledge With this they will agree to either not text while driving; not text and only using hands free calling; or not texting or use their cell phone at all while driving. If they need to use their phone, they pledge to pull over to the side of the road before sending a text or making a call.

Pull over. If it's necessary to read an incoming message, or send one, then discuss with your teen how they can resist the urge for instant gratification, and wait until it's safe to pull over, do the texting, and then turn the cell phone off or throw it into the back seat, out of reach.

Don't try to "save" the text messaging for a red light. If they do this, their focus is not on driving. Driving and text messaging aren't compatible activities, so it's better to have them make the commitment not to text AT ALL when in the car. Remind your teen that while responding to all incoming texts might seem critical to them, most text messages can wait.

8 Comments

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• May 27, 2010 by Karen R. Flood

  I think they should go ahead and use the hand free device because we lost and had so many accidents due to those uncaring motorists and texters at least think of others safety and lives my goodness if it was your child or family member at risk what would you do??? Let it be illegal for it in NC or should i say Columbus County let it be known if they're caught a fine or citation!!!

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  • September 14, 2010 by aryon jones

    i think people should be more careful an think of the risk of these things its just dangerous for everyone

    Reply

• May 28, 2010 by GUS ALIBERTI

  Im asking everyone to please, please, please, help save a.....LIFE. !!!!!!!!!!!

  lets all work togeather, and help STOP, all drivers from texing, and or talking on the cellphone while driveing. this is a very, serious major problem throughout all of its states, citys, towns, and all local communitys. please, please, help me, help save a life. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I deeply thank everyone for joining in, and helping and supporting me. help save lives.

  I CARE OF YOUR OWN SAFETY, I CARE OF YOUR FAMILY, I CARE OF YOUR BEST FRIENDS. !!!! I CARE, SO....PLEASE, PLEASE, HELP ME STOP ALL DRIVERS FROM BOTH; TEXING AND OR TALKING ON THE CELLPNONE WHILE DRIVEING. TODAY DRIVEING IS A SAFETY ISSUE. AND WE NEED,,,,THIS TO STOP. PLEASE UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I SERIOUSLY CARE OF YOUR SAFETY WHILE DRIVEING. !!!!!!!!

  THANKS FOR YOUR GREATEST HELP AND SUPPORT WITHIN MY SAFETY ISSUE. YOUR GOOD FRIEND, GUS ALIBERTI. FRIDAY MAY 29, 2010 IM TRYING TO HELP............PREVENT ACCIDENTS OR DEATHS. !!!!!!

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• June 7, 2010 by Pasquale Bottiglieri

  Several years ago, I took a few flying lessons in addition to acquiring a CDL. At the time I took that training, I had been driving a car for many years and had accumulated perhaps 400,000 or 500,000 miles of driving experience. Based on that, I really believed I knew a few things about driving. I found out very quickly that I was incorrect in that assumption. In fact, I knew nothing whatsoever about driving.

  From the trucker who patiently trained me to parallel park a tractor trailer, I learned how little I knew about the force and motion involved in driving a vehicle when the loads change or move, something that happens quite often when you are driving with a car full of friends on the way to the beach. He also gave me some new insight on the value of a pre-run check of my tires, undercarriage, belts, lights, especially signal and brake lights, etc. But the big lesson from the over the road trucker who told me point blank that I had no idea what driving was all about, was what can happen when you tail gate with a tractor trailer or when you fail to keep the ice off your air brake equipment or, very new and different, what can happen when you are over loaded and blow a tire with a motorcycle riding next to you.

  The pilot trainer, a young man with a great deal of experience but little patience, blew his top at me after the second I did something completely out of the question for a pilot who wishes to live. First, while doing a stall exercise at 3000 feet, I froze with angst, locked the right rudder all the way to the ground after he told me we were yawing, put us in an inverted dive and required he take the controls to save both our lives. The second occurred when I, after holding short prior to takeoff, immediately proceeded to the runway without looking to the right or left once I had been given permission to proceed by the tower. My trainer glared at me and asked if I saw the imaginary aircraft attempting to land on that runway, the pilot of which was experiencing a heart attack, could not speak because of the pain and who was flying under the radar.

  My point here is very simple. Anyone who does not understand the danger to themselves and to other drivers that is imposed by texting while driving is as immature and inexperienced as I was when I took that training, to say nothing of the ego involved in insisting on personal superiority to everyone else.

  Failure to focus on the tasks involved in driving a car is literally slaughtering people in today's traffic. I am in favor of making it illegal with severe penalties to operate a motor vehicle when unable for any reason to supply the necessary focus, concentration and coordination to do so safely. It is, at this point, a proven fact that texting falls into that category.

  For those individuals who wish to argue and perhap can demonstrate that they have the eye hand coordination to text while driving and to do so above the national average, I have the following advice: It only takes a split second for a life threatening situation to occur without warning on the road. That split second, and your ability to react, may be all that stands between you and a tangled wreck. If your ego stands in the way of your accepting that, for your sake and the sake of other people, don't drive. As my truck driver trainer said to me after sounding my sense of bravado, "Son, if you ain't bent this way, don't try leanin."

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• June 25, 2010 by David Drachman

  While driving, I used to constantly receive text messages. I thought I was being clever when my friends and I decided to text "DR" when we were driving, so the other person would know that we would get back to them afterward. However, there was nothing clever whatsoever about this idea, as we were still focused on our phones, rather than our driving.

  So then I did something different. I created a Blackberry application called "SMS Auto-Mobile Reply." It's basically an auto-reply program for text messaging. If it is turned on, people who text you will automatically get a reply stating that you are driving at the moment and will get back to them when you are finished driving. Additionally, there is a parental lock mode which enables people to "lock" the phone in auto-reply mode until a password is entered.

  Right now, the program is only available for Blackberry phones, and I'm still trying to gather feedback, but I figured that at least it's a small step towards insuring our teens don't text and drive.

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  • September 3, 2010 by betsy l.

    I have a 10 yr. old strongly going on 15/16 yrs. old. He will be driving before we know it and it scares me to death. I think your idea is a great one. I've had teenage girls almost pull right in my lane and not even look. If it wasn't for me watching out for the other guy, (like I always do), she would of side-swiped me. The phone makers need to come up with something to immobilize the teenagers phones when they get into a car, not to mention theres alot of adults that need the same thing. It should be illegal to talk on the phone and drive in every state. There would be alot less accidents and deaths in this world.

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• August 17, 2010 by Ray

  I just buried a niece after she had been on the cell phone calling her boyfriend for directions and she went through a stop sign. She was "T-Boned" by another vehicle going somewhere in the 50-60mph and she did not have a seat belt on. The responding para-medics did not even take her to the hospital. PULL OVER AND STOP IFYOU ARE GIOING TO TEXT OR CALL.

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• February 7, 2011 by Sadie Wiseman

  i think everyone should stop texting and driving completely. my mother was hit by a lady that was texting and driving. she almost took my moms life. that text no matter who it's from means more than your life or anyones elses. my mom doesn't drive anyore because she afraid she's gonna hit someone. it's hard thing to deal with and people need to understand.

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