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Pedestrian photo Colorado Highways

Distracted driving; danger on Utah highways

By Brittany Rigby | Posted August 6th, 2016 @ 10:49am
CENTERVILLE CITY ---Zero Fatalities of Utah reports that you are 23 times more likley to
crash if you text and drive. I thought about this as I casually observed a fellow driver texting
from my passenger side window. Look, there is someone else texting and driving. I informed
my driver. I then proceeded to let him know how angry it made me and how I did not understand
why people chose to text and drive and put the lives of themselves and others in danger for a text
message. I drive these roads with my little family! I implored him. His response was
unexpected. He proceeded to tell me how good at texting and driving he was.
Unfortunately, his response gives us a sneak peek into the thought processes of a significant
amount of the public when it comes to texting and driving. Generally, everyone knows and
admits that it is dangerous, but they do it anyways. This is scary. I personally see it often as I
drive a 26 mile stretch of highway to work. On most weeks I encounter a distracted driver.
Recently, with the Pokmon Go craze I have witnessed cars full of grown adults all trying to
catch Pokmon. Including the driver.
Its not hard to pick out someone that is texting, checking emails, or trying to catch Pokmon
while driving. Usually you become aware of the situation as you notice multiple drivers
swerving, jeering, and speeding up to get out of the way of a vehicle that seems to be oblivious
to there being anyone else on the road, to which lane he/she should be in, or if there are any lanes
at all.
Almost without fail during my experiences, as you reach the driver, he/she is texting, or lately,
trying to catch Pokmon. Just two weeks ago, during rush hour traffic, I witnessed an offender

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driving a small red sports car steering only with his knee so that his hands were free to do more
important things. It was so scary to watch him weave in and out of traffic as everyone
desperately tried to get out of his way.
So just how much danger does texting and driving pose and do we need to be concerned with it?
Multiple studies and reports have been conducted in pursuit to answer that question. Michael E.
Bratsis author of the Health Wise article published in The Science Teacher Journal reports that
the concentration needed for safe driving while simultaniously texting has been scientifically
proven to be impossibe. With Bratsiss reporting that teens make up the largest group of
distracted drivers, that nearly half of them admit they have been in a car with the driver texting,
and that The Center for Disease Control currently estimates that 31% of adults text and drive (not
just teens folks) we can see that this is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Bratsis helps us to see just how frieghtening it is with the following tidbit of information
Sending or reading a text takes the drivers eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55
mph, thats like driving the length of a football field blindfolded. Yikes. Can you imagine
taking on that challenge? Driving on our highways during rush hour traffic blindfolded for the
length of a football field at 55 mph. Unfortunaley, we see that people are accepting this challenge
daily.
Steven J. Seiler, PhD author of Hand On The Wheel, Mind On The Mobile: An Analysis Of
Social Factors Contributing To Texting While Drving provides us with another bit of chilling
information, explaining that the more often children, watch their parents or peers text while
driving without any consequences the more likley they are to text and drive. With 31% of adults
texting and driving we are not being great examples. Kids and teens begin to feel like even
though it is dangerous it is an acceptable and even normal part of driving.

Driving While Texting.

www.Flickr.com

So the next question to be asked is why do we continue to text and drive when we know how
dangerous it is? Seiler reports that there are a lot of different factors and social pressures
involved here. One factor includes the growing addictions to our mobile devices. We just cant
live without them. We will impulsively use them anytime and anywhere, there is nowhere that is

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off limits. We seem to find that 30 minute commute to work just too long to be cut off from our
mobiles. Steiler provides research that shows that people consistintly are using their time driving
to maintain relationships that are socially more and more nurtured through daily spontaneous
texting.
Time Magazine continues to shed light as to why we take on this risk with a study led by David
Greenfield, a University of Connecticut Medical School Professor. It reveals that the impulse to
pick up our phone is a lot like the impulse to put a coin in a slot machine. It is really hard for us
to withstand that urge. When the buzz of a text alert comes through our body releases dopamine
which causes us to feel excited and if it is from someone appealing even more dopamine is
released.
As for advice on how to stop texting and driving Greensfield says that people need to relize that
they are part of the problem and in order to really include oneself in a group that has a problem
with texting and driving, they have to admit their own fallibility, and were loath to do that.
Regrettably, it may take years of campaigns with actions in place to put an end to texting and
driving.
So what can we do now as individual citizens? Just put your phone down. Make a consious effort
to silence your phone before getting into the car if you know that the lure of that buzz is going to
be too much for you to resist. Lets all do our part to keep our families and loved ones safe on the
roads and dont be afraid to let others know just what you think about them texting and driving.
And remember, the world is not going to end if we dont answer that text right away, but it just
might if we do.
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Works Cited
Bratsis, Michael E. Health Wise: Curbing Texting While Driving. The Science Teacher 2013:
70 JSTOR Journals. Web. 16 July 2016
Seiler, Steven J. Hand On The Wheel, Mind On The Mobile: Analysis of Social Factors
Contributing To Texting While Driving. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking 18.2 (2015): 72 -78. PsycoINFO. Web. 16 July 2016.
Worland, Justin. Why People Text and Drive Even When They Know it is Dangerous
Time.com Nov 6th, 2014. Web. July 7th, 2016. http://time.com/3561413/texting-drivingdangerous/
Ut.zerofatalities. Zerofatalities, 2016. Web. 16 July 2016.