Was that text worth it?

As a 16 year old in Georgia, I’ve had to sit through hours of a boring Joshua’s Law lecture, a class that taught me about the importance of driving safely. When I was listening to all the laws put in place to make the road a safer place for drivers and passengers my first thought was, ‘Isn’t it common sense not to text and drive?’ Later on I found out that there are 30,000 wrecks annually that have been caused by the use of a mobile device leading to 400 fatal crashes in the United States. Statistically compared to other causes of accidents, it is one of the least likely causes but as the use of cell phones rises in the United States; the CDC estimates 3,000 lives will be lost in the next year.

I’ve had a phone for years now and it’s been methodically adapted into my everyday life. As my friends and classmates begin to drive I see that the habit of checking their devices isn’t fully lost while they’re on the road. With the thought echoing in everyone’s head saying, “That can’t happen to me.” but it very much could. Learning more about these crashes I was reminded of a Novel that I had read a few years ago called “Goodbye Days” by Jeff Zentner, which was about a boy who had lost his three closest friends. They were going to pick him up, and as he was waiting for their arrival he sent a text to his friend driving to see how long it would take. Sadly, the driver checked his phone and without looking at the road got into an accident leading to the deaths of all three boys. I feel like this is a very good way to show how this type of accident can affect the drivers as well as the people around them. This loss made the boy feel as though it was his fault. Was this tragedy avoidable? Did the families of these boys have to suffer such senseless loss and go through a devastating experience?

A single life being lost doesn’t affect only that person, it can affect up to 50 people quite deeply for years up to forever. Someone could grieve over feeling like the cause of their loved one losing their life because of a simple text message they had sent them. Without people knowing any of these facts or statistics they could seemingly be a victim of one of these mournfully sad accidents, leading a community of their loved ones to not be able to fully recover from it. These accidents can be avoided many times by not paying attention to a mobile device while driving. Fewer people are put at risk and everyone wins. Life is too precious and people don’t have to grieve when accidents don’t happen.

I was actually a passenger in a car wreck in the past year; though it wasn’t due to a mobile device. The driver of the car I was in was slowing down to get ready for a turn, and as the driver looked off the road for a second the person in front of us had stopped and we hit their car. We were very lucky that we were going as slow as we were but the effects of the crash were baffling for the little speed we were going, luckily our seatbelts functioned properly and we did not hit our heads on the dashboard.A migraine later on but that was the worst injury from the whole accident. This small collision opened my eyes to how fast a wreck can be caused by looking away even for a second. You don’t know what could happen in that second and when cell phones come into play they make the road ten times more dangerous.

There are other fatal causes of accidents like drinking and driving which is the most well known cause. Hundreds of crashes happen every day by people who are fully competent and if you add phones or alcohol into the mix, you double the risk of being involved in an accident.. These handicaps affect hundreds of lives everyday both living and the ones that pass. The more people get educated and apply what they’ve learned can lead to fewer fatalities. Good laws can impact the lives of so many. Each person’s life is valuable and we can do better by following the laws that our government puts in place regarding texting while driving. It can save thousands of lives a year. Let’s make our roads safer for everyone and put the phones down while driving.