Driving while texting

“Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% every year. In 2002, the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis calculated that 2,600 people die each year as a result of using cell phones while driving. They estimated that another 330,000 are injured.” The statistics on texting while driving will make you cringe and make you think it’s a no-brainer for Senator Schumer from NY Times to ban texting while driving. Fourteen states, including Alaska, California, and New Jersey, have banned texting while driving, a large number of states are not complying, but they are beginning to think about it after learning what will happen if they don’t. “States that do not ban texting by drivers could forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars in federal highway funds under legislation introduced Wednesday in the Senate. Under the measure, states would have two years to outlaw the sending of text and e-mail messages by drivers or lose 25 percent of their highway money each year until the money was depleted.” Recent studies found that texting while driving is more dangerous than talking on the phone or driving drunk. Another study done by Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that, “truck drivers face a 23 times greater risk of crash or near crash when texting than when not doing so.” The legislation to ban texting while driving was based on the past legislation on raising the drinking age. “Mr. Schumer said that the legislation was essentially based on the drinking age law.”
http://www.edgarsnyder.com/auto-accident/auto/cell/statistics.html