The Dangers of Text Messaging While Driving

It is common knowledge that distracted driving is one of the major causes of car accidents. Roughly 6,000 deaths and half a million injuries annually are caused by distracted drivers. One of the main distractions is cell phones. In a 2011 poll, 37 percent of drivers admitted to having sent to received and read text messages while driving. 18 percent reported that they do so on a regular basis. And in a 2008 poll of 16- and 17-year-olds, 46 percent admit to texting while driving. In 2009, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute conducted a study which examined the driving habits of truck drivers covering more than six million miles of road. The Institute concluded that drivers who send text messages while operating a moving vehicle are 23 times more likely to be in a crash than non-distracted drivers.

Far too many young people have lost their lives learning this lesson:

In a suburb outside of Rochester, NY, five teenage girls — Bailey Goodman, Hannah Congdon, Meredith McClure, Monnat and Katie Shirley — who had graduated from high school just five days before, were killed when Goodman, the driver of the SUV swerved into oncoming traffic and struck a tractor-trailer before bursting into flames. Phone records show that two minutes before the crash was reported, Goodman had sent a text to a friend.

In the small town of Eufaula, AL, 17-year-old Dana Trammell died when she was thrown from her vehicle in a crash. She was texting someone on her way to her first day of her senior year.

Two teenagers, 17-year-old Vanna Francis and 15-year-old Ronnie Scroggins drowned in the Elwha River in Clallam County, WA, when a car carrying seven teenage passengers drove off the road and into the river. The 20-year-old driver had been both under the influence of alcohol and texting when the crash occurred.

Of course, it is not just teenagers who can cause the deaths of others because of texting while driving.

In Taunton, MA, 31-year-old Craig Bigos struck and killed 13-year-old Earman Machado, who was riding a bike. Bigos admitted he had been texting when he lost control of his vehicle and hit what he believed was a mailbox.

In Carr, CO, 18-year-old Makayla Lynn Belew was killed in a hit-and-run while walking along the side of the road. It wasn’t until a year later that 28-year-old Larry Chad Smithey was arrested. He had been texting while driving.

In other cases, texting drivers have been operating vehicles other than cars. In a horrifying accident occurring September 12, 2008, in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles, a Metrolink commuter train ran a red signal and collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train. The crash has since been blamed on the Metrolink train’s 46-year-old engineer, who, phone records indicate, sent the last in a series of text messages 22 seconds before impact. In total, 25 people died in the wreck, including Sanchez. 135 other were injured. It remains the deadliest accident in Metrolink history.