Texting and Driving

by Adam Bramanti

        Throughout any point of the day, 660,000 drivers attempt to use their mobile devices while operating a vehicle.

“I was involved in a rear end accident where someone struck me because he was looking at his phone,” Brian Davis, a George Washington student, said.

“I got really lucky because a lot of times people are seriously injured by texting and driving accidents,” Davis said.

Texting increases eyes spent off the road by 400 percent. Cell phone usage while driving a car leads to about 1.6 million car crashes a year, according to the National Security Council.

                  “Those statistics are crazy. I try to limit my texting and driving as much as I can but sometimes I catch myself trying to send a quick text,” Jimmy Walsh, a Stonehill student, said.

                  While answering a text, it takes away five seconds of your attention. If you’re driving 55 miles per hour, that’s enough time to travel the length of a football field, according to the National Security Council.

                  Driver distraction was the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes. 40 percent of all American teens say they have been in a car when a driver has used a cell phone that has caused some type of risk, according to a Pew survey.

                  “Each time I get into the car I try to put my phone in the backseat. It is just such a temptation to send a text while driving. Part of the issue is I don’t think many people know the dangers or realize the statistics,” Ryan Logan, an Ohio native, said.

                  What Logan said, surprisingly, actually may be false according to an AAA poll. 94% of teen drivers realize the dangers of texting and driving, but 35% admitted to doing it anyway.

                  Eleven teens die every day as a result of texting while driving and nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year because of it, according to an AAA poll.

                  “I find it scary when I see someone swerving on and off the road and then drive past them and see that it’s because they’re texting,” Walsh said.

                  Massachusetts has implemented new laws to prevent texting and driving injuries, deaths, and accidents. A first offense results in $100 fine, a second offense is $250, and a third offense is $500.

                  “The new laws are important. It will at least make people think about grabbing their phone before sending a text. I bet it lowers the rate of texting and driving significantly,” Logan said.

                  “I know that is has stopped me from completely texting. To me, if it is a law then it obviously means there are heavy risks involved. I’m in favor or the law,” Joshua Lang, a Dartmouth College student, said.

                  Teen drivers are four times more likely to get into an accident from texting than adults, according to the National Safety Council.

                  “That makes sense to me. Adults are sort of out of the loop with technology anyways. A lot of times my parents can’t believe how much I answer texts when I am just sitting on the couch,” Walsh said.

                  “I never see my mom or dad text and drive. Come to think of it I never really see any adults do it, maybe just here and there,” Lang said.  

                  Dave Hurley, a psychology professor at Stonehill College, is very knowledgeable on the topic of multitasking.

                  “Recent research from the University of Utah found that most people are incapable of effectively multitasking, and in fact, we just bounce back and forth rapidly between tasks, which makes us far less productive and capable at either task,” said Hurley.

                  “When you combine our limited ability to multitask with our inflated confidence in our ability to multitask, you have a dangerous recipe,” said Hurley.

                  Hurley then spoke on the topic of multitasking with regards to texting and driving.

                  “64% of Americans own a smartphone in 2015, which means that more drivers have access to texts and emails while driving. Given this prevalence of smart phones, it makes intuitive sense that when bored in traffic, or when the drive gets monotonous, we pick up our phones,” said Hurley.”

                  “We also have to remember that not only are we as a driver distracted by texting, but so is the other driver. If you take all the tasks required when driving a car and add in the distraction of a cell phone/text message, we are really straining our limited working memory resources, which leads to paying less attention, slower reaction times, especially in the event of a sudden stop or an accident,” said Hurley.