Texting and Driving

There are many things that go together for example, crackers and cheese, peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, etc. and there are things that don’t. One of the things that don’t go together is texting and driving, especially when the wheel and phone are in the hands of an inexperienced teenage driver. Texting and driving in teenagers is an increasing problem in the Unites States and has led from small accidents, to huge ones, and even to death. Teenagers are not invincible and are almost incapable of multi-tasking, therefore texting and driving is a huge distraction that can lead to a tragic outcome.

Being a nineteen-year-old teenager myself, I am also faced with the dilemma of texting and driving and sadly my experience with it led me to bad outcome. I got my driver’s license when I was sixteen, and it was great. I loved the freedom it gave me, I could go somewhere without having to wait for my parents or a friend to take me. The first year with my license I was very careful, I didn’t speed or use my phone while driving. However once I started getting more and more comfortable while driving I thought that I could multi-task. I thought that I had mastered the art of texting while driving; I thought that it was so easy. I knew that my attention was in two different places at once but I didn’t think that it was enough to affect my driving ability. However, I was very wrong. Two years after I got my license, I was a very busy senior in high school. I was playing field hockey and taking a SAT prep course. Two days a week I had to leave straight from field hockey practice and go to my SAT course, which was very far away from my high school. One day it was the middle of rush hour and I was driving on my way to my SAT class. I was stopped at a red light about 2 cars back and I decided that it was a good time to text my friend. When I glanced up the light had turned green so I stepped on the gas pedal and that is when I heard smack and I came to a sudden stop. I had hit the car in front of me because I was more focused on my text message then on driving. Luckily everyone was okay. We exchanged information and my parents were very angry. I had to pay for all of the damages, which ended up being worth $3,000. I was extremely lucky that this was a small accident and everyone was okay. This accident made me realize just how much texting while driving impairs you. It also made me realize that texting while behind the wheel of a car is not worth even the smallest accident and is definitely not worth an accident that might be fatal.

I was very lucky that my accident wasn’t that bad, because for a lot of other people the outcome could be different, and even fatal. “A Virginia Tech study…found that texting while driving is 23 times more dangerous than just your normal, everyday ride” (Engelhardt, 2009). People put themselves and others lives at risk when they text and drive and it is causing terrible