Legislators in several states say multitaskers are taking it too far, using their knees or little fingers to steer their cars while punching in cellphone messages.
Washington is the first state to pass a law banning “driving while texting.” The law takes effect in January and calls for a $101 fine for DWT. So far this year, nine other states have considered such legislation.
Driving while texting is a newer form of driver distraction. It joins such crash-causing activities as making calls on a cellphone, eating, and talking to passengers in the car.
Researchers at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute show that driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes. And texting takes a driver’s eyes off the road.
If the drivers’ eyes are away from the roadway for two seconds or more in a six-second window, their risk of being involved in a crash is two times higher than that of an attentive driver.
A 2006 joint report with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found 78 percent of crashes involved a driver distracted within three seconds before an accident.
At the Center for Mobile Communications at Rutgers University, they say it’s human nature to know something is dangerous but to believe you can handle it better than others. This false sense of confidence could cost you your life and someone else’s life as well.
Think about it next time you want to be DWT. The time you save could be multiplied many times over as time lost if you are injured in a car crash. You couldn’t call it “an accident.”