Text Messaging, also known as texting, is widely popular because of its accelerated and entertaining prospects. Texting is so well-liked that society has trouble leaving the virtual world and putting their phones down. Walking, talking, working…driving? Mixing texting and driving is hazardous and people are ludicrously thinking that they themselves cannot be touched by the precarious possibilities. Enforcing the texting while driving ban is a cause worth fighting for because it distracts people from driving, endangers others, and distracted drivers are more likely to get into accidents. This cause is a sure-fire way of making the generation looking down, look up.

Texting while driving is trivial because it distracts people from driving. “Studies have shown that people who text while driving, walking, or performing other activities are more likely to injure themselves or others because they are not paying adequate attention to what they are doing“(“Texting Distractions”). If people cannot do other activities outside of a car without the possibility of harming themselves, think of them in a two-thousand pound vehicle. “Scientists have found that the brain has a limited ability to multitask and often has difficulty focusing on and accurately interpreting more than one stream of information at a time”(“Texting Distractions”). Drivers cannot concentrate on the road while glued to their electronics. “For 98% of the population, regardless of age, the likelihood of a crash while on a cell phone increases fourfold….”(Hanes 1). No one is more skilled than others and they are in danger just as much as anyone else.

People should not text while driving because they endanger others as well. “Dulce Barajas texted while driving with her infant son and her sister in the car and collided head-on with another driver, Jesus Saenz. All but Barajas’ sister died” (“DPS: Texting”). When Dulce decided to text while driving a vehicle she killed someone who was innocent. “A women was convicted of homicide by negligent driving after a jury found she was writing a text message when she slammed into a UW Madison student as he stood behind his broken-down car on East Johnson Street in 2010”(“Sun Prairie”). If this women had put her phone down she would not have been arrested for a homicide. These two situations have one thing in common: texting at the wheel. When someone texts while driving they are not the only ones at risk.

Another reason to enforce the texting while driving ban is that distracted drivers are more likely to get into accidents. “According to a recent study conducted by the University of North Texas School of Public Health, texting while driving makes the average driver 23 times more likely to cause a crash then if he was only focusing on the road”(Texting While Driving is a danger”). Driving is already dangerous enough when you are a defensive and responsible driver, why make it even more risky by not giving the road your full attention? “According to CBS News in New York, on May 9th, 2013,”More than 3,000 teens die annually from texting while driving, compared to about 2,700 for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to a study by Cohen children’s medical Center in New Hyde Park’”(“Semi Truck”). More people die from distracted drivers than ones who are under the influence, so this cause should be taken as seriously as drunk driving. “Rebecca Edison, 45, drove into a pole after losing control of her vehicle. Edison told police that she was driving and texting when she dropped her phone and lost control of her car” (“Brief: Woman”). In order for an experienced driver to crash into a pole, their minds are out in cyberspace and not in their vehicle.

Most people give the cold, hard facts a cursory glance and shrug because they believe there are other options, like hands-free electronics. “Study participants in a driving simulator were guilty of speeding, changing lanes without signaling and other dangerous habits while using hands-free devices, committing significantly more errors than when driving with no distractions”(“Shut Up and Drive!”). People reiterate that as long as you have both hands on the wheel, you are focused and that is not true. The idea was good in retrospect, solving a massive problem that is augmenting. The only way to solve the problem of texting and driving is to give up on the idea of safely doing both altogether. 

Cellphones are both a gift and a curse. Society can make sure that these devices do not make everyone dangerous and irresponsible, especially when the problem can be so feasibly solved. It is imperative that the texting while driving ban is enforced because lives are at stake when they do not have to be. No one expects to be hurt, almost as if they are invincible. What they do not realize is that the odds of getting into an accident are very real. Hopefully it will not take an accident for individuals to realize that they should have looked up instead of down.  

     
Works Cited
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"DPS: Texting likely caused crash that killed 3." Monitor [McAllen, TX] 29 Dec. 2012. Gale Power Search. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
"THE DRIVE; Web-surfing drivers may as well sleep at the wheel." Star Tribune [Minneapolis, MN] 18 Nov. 2013. General OneFile. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
Hanes, Stephanie. "Texting While Driving Is as Dangerous as Drunk Driving." Distracted Driving. Ed. Stefan Kiesbye. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Texting While Driving: The New Drunk Driving." Christian Science Monitor. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
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"Texting While Driving." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Student Resources in Context. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
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"Semi Truck Accident Victims Center Now Says According To A New Study Teenagers Texting Causes More Fatalities Than Drunk Teenage Drivers." PRWeb Newswire 21 Aug. 2013.General OneFile. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
"Shut up and drive!" Maclean's 10 June 2013: 10. General OneFile. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
"Sun Prairie woman convicted of homicide by negligent driving for texting before crash." WI State Journal [Madison, WI] 28 July 2012. General OneFile. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
"Using Technology to Increase Workplace Productivity May Actually Slow Workers Down." Benzinga.com 5 Feb. 2013. General Business ASAP. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.