As the dangers associated with texting while driving because more and more obvious, it’s good to see states bring awareness to troubling statistics and try to educate individuals based off of that awareness.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol is doing what it can to warn drivers against texting while behind the wheel of an automobile. A spokesperson gives some troubling statistics that are intended to open peoples’ eyes. For instance, he says that a crash related to cell phone usage takes place every 24 seconds. If you do text while driving, he claims, the chances of you being involved in an accident are 23 times higher than if you had your attention fully on the road.
In addition to those hair-raising figures, the state of Tennessee has seen 20% of crashes in the last five years coming as a result of using a cellphone in some way. This puts the state 2% higher than the average across the rest of the nation. The government’s own Distraction.gov estimates that 4.6 seconds is the average amount of time that someone texting has to remove their eyes from the road.
There are ways to counteract this problem. First, and probably most obviously: don’t text. The Tennessee Highway Patrol tells adults that they can be examples for teenagers, the most at-risk demographic. Teens, for their part, can be a BFF by not texting, says the spokesperson.