#justdrive: Stop Texting and Driving

I applaud the The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for trying to spread the message about the dangers of texting and driving in a more direct way by tweeting people who admit to doing it.

The tweets, which use the hashtag #justdrive, are sent to people who have themselves tweeted about their texting and driving. Check out NHWTSA creative campaign here.

Here are some facts that will hopefully make people think twice before pulling out their phones while driving.

• Not worth it: The United States Department of Transportation notes that cell phones are involved in 1.6 million auto crashes each year that cause a half million injuries and take 6,000 lives. 6,000 people per year would still be alive. 6,000 family and friends per year wouldn't have had to suffer if we would just put our phones down.

• Think you can stop fast enough? 5 seconds is the minimal time it takes to look away from your phone when your texting and driving. If you are driving 55 mph, this equals driving the length of a football field without looking at the road.

• The increase risk: Text messaging makes a crash up to 23 times more likely. According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, texting while driving is six times more likely to cause an auto crash than driving when intoxicated.

• Think your quick enough to react? A study from the University of Utah indicated that the reaction time of a teen driver using a cell phone is the same as that of a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone.

Sources: textinganddrivingsafety.com and donttextdrive.com

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