"Why Zero Fatalities? Because when it comes to your friends and family, one fatality is too many."

“Texting while driving is a growing trend, and a national epidemic, quickly becoming one of the country’s top killers. Drivers assume they can handle texting while driving and remain safe, but the numbers don’t lie.” -TextingAndDrivingSafety.com

According to statistics from this website, 82% of American teenagers, ages sixteen to seventeen, own a cell phone. Out of those adolescents, 52% of them have talked on a cell phone while driving and 34% have texted while driving. Eleven teenagers die EVERY DAY from accidents related to texting and driving. That’s a little less than half of my journalism class. But that’s also a whole lot of people who are affected by those deaths. Families, friends, and whole communities suffer when a single life is lost to such a preventable cause.

 One of the first accidents to occur from texting and driving happened right here in Utah. Nineteen-year-old Reggie Shaw was driving on the Valley View Highway in Logan while sending and receiving text messages. Although Reggie did not intend to hurt anyone by doing this, he crashed and killed two men on the highway. In a video that discusses the incident, Reggie is obviously brokenhearted about taking the lives of two men. He was booked in the Cache County Jail for 30 days and sentenced to spend 100 hours doing community service, including educating the public about the dangers of texting and driving. Today in Utah, texting while driving is absolutely illegal. Here is Utah legislation concerning texting and driving: 

• Texting or emailing while driving is punishable by up to a $750 fine and up to 90 days in jail.

• Causing injury to another person is punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail.
•       Cause a fatality and you may receive a fine of up to 10,000 and up to 15 years in prison.

Texting is not essential. Driving is not necessary. These things are granted to us once we show competence and maturity. Most teenagers receive cell phones when they are in middle school or high school—a stage where they are ready to show responsibility. Parents often pay for their children’s cell phones and reserve the right to take them away when needed. Around the time teens receive a cell phone is also the time they begin to learn how to drive. Driving is also granted to us when we show proficiency in doing it, but the second one shows immaturity or lack of knowledge when driving, the right to drive can be taken away also. With the freedoms of texting and driving come immense responsibility.

Utah’s own Zero Fatalities program advocates against drunk driving, distracted driving, and aggressive driving. Here is some advice and tips they give concerning driving while distracted:

Driving safely can be challenging enough, even when a driver is paying attention to the road and potential hazards. Add even one distraction and the chances of crashing increase significantly. In 2009, distracted driving was a factor in 5,474 traffic fatalities nationwide (16% of total fatalities) and an estimated 448,000 injuries, according to FARS and GES.

Anything that takes the driver's attention off the road is a distraction. Some common distractions include cell phones, eating, navigating, reading, drinking, changing music, talking to passengers or tending to children, adjusting car settings, applying make-up, reaching for something in the vehicle or looking at something away from the roadway.

For teens, texting while driving is the number one distraction, though drivers of all ages are driving while using their phones. The National Safety Council estimates that 1.4 million crashes each year involve drivers using cell phones and a minimum of 200,000 additional crashes each year involve drivers who are texting.

With so many potential distractions, a driver's attention may easily get diverted if the driver isn't making a conscious effort to stay focused on the road. It just takes one time of looking away for a brief moment to cause a disaster.

Warning Signs and What to Do

A key warning sign to watch for is when you notice that you are focused on anything other than the roadway or the vehicles around you. Are you paying too much attention to the cell phone or radio and not enough attention to the road? If so, it's just not worth it. Anything can wait so that you and your family can arrive safely.

Tips

1.         Focus only on driving.

2.         Have a passenger do the other activities of answering the cell phone, changing the CD, navigating, etc.

3.         The safest time to use your cell phone in the car is when you reach your destination and have stopped.

4.         Make adjustments to your vehicle's mirrors, temperature settings, seat positioning, etc., before you hit the road.

*This information is taken from ZeroFatalities.com

In my last blog post, I discussed a recent incident of a man hitting three young girls while texting and driving. An updated version of that story included input from one of Utah’s senators and his thoughts concerning texting and driving. Lyle Hillyard has been advocating strongly against texting in driving. He fully supported a new law passed in Utah, prohibiting teens under the age of 18 to use a cell phone at all when driving, unless they are calling parents or in cases of emergency. Hillyard hopes the law will eventually extend to adults as well. In fact, he believes after much hard work, cell phones will be completely banned from all drivers in Utah. According to Hillyard, though, Utah has “become a state where people value freedom and say, ‘I ought to be able to choose for myself.’” He says, “I listen to that argument and say ‘Fine, if you’re the only person you’re going to hurt, but when you’re driving your car 60 miles per hour and not paying attention, I’m at risk.’” Hillyard, along with many others, believe texting and driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving. He says Utah should not tolerate texting and driving, just as it doesn’t tolerate drunk driving.

Texting and driving is fatally dangerous. No one should have to suffer death or any type of injury from such a preventable action. Next time you get behind the wheel, silence your cell phone so it won’t cause any distraction when you’re on the road. For your own safety and the protection of precious lives around you, DO NOT TEXT AND DRIVE. You can take the pledge to commit to safe driving today and help Utah on its road to Zero Fatalities!