You’re on your way home from the school traffic, in your new car, when your phone vibrates in the cup
holder, with a worried message from mom. She is wondering why you aren’t home yet. Picking up the
phone, you start typing the message ‘almost there’ while balancing the steering wheel with a knee and
an arm. With eyes are shifting every five seconds from the phone to the road, you suddenly hear a
screech and a crash. It only took those two small words to ruin your shiny, new, beloved car. You are in a
‘fender-bender’ with the car in front of you and the front of your new car is ruined, not to mention the
back of the other car. You thought you adored your car, but not taking one of the biggest precautions of
all time, proved you wrong.

A shocking amount of 67% of teenage drivers admit to risky driving, 41% DWT (driving while texting)
Most students who are educated in the area of DWT think: this happened to them, but it won’t happen
to me; when really, tons and tons of people are injured or killed due to DWT. Some people consider this
the new ‘drunk driving’ because it is the equivalent of having 4 drinks and being behind the wheel.

It’s not just teens that are doing the dirty driving, anyone can; from young people to adults it really
doesn’t matter what age you are. Even celebrities do it! Recently the talk show host, Oprah, has set up a
‘No Phone Pledge’ for anyone who is interested and willing, to go to her website and sign it, vowing to
never be on the road while having a conversation with anyone other than the person in the passenger’s
seat. She calls it ‘America’s New Deadly Obsession’. She has even dedicated one of her shows to the
issue, including all of the stories from behind the steering wheel to families coping with their losses from
‘texting while driving’, just like this one:

In November 2008, Shelly was driving home from a doctor’s appointment to see a large amount of fire
trucks and people surrounding a small child, lying lifeless on the street next to a maimed bike. Shelly
soon found out her daughter Erica (9) was the victim of a horrible ‘texting while driving’ accident. The
person who hit Erica admitted afterwards to having a conversation over the phone at the time of the
accident. She says the 5,000 pound SUV hit Erica head on while she was riding her bike home from
school towards the side of the street. Erica was driven to the Children’s Hospital and after some serious
worrying; the Neurosurgeon had to break the news to Shelly. Erica would not make it. Shelly says, “I
spent the night with her that night. I held her. Cried. I kissed her. I sang to her. I just needed to have
time with my girl.” Shelly attempts to make an impression now with the heart wrenching story of her
loss. Shelly and her husband, Daron inspire millions to stop driving and texting, now with the quote,
“You’ve got precious cargo in that car. Your life. Your child’s life. They are not worth a phone call, a text,
an email. It’s not worth it.”

The reaction time for driving deteriorates to 35% while driving and texting, which is worse than drunk
driving. The ability to stay a safe distance away from the car in front of you is also worse than drunk
driving. People, who are involved in an accident and were texting and driving, can get up to 5 years in
jail. Don’t think that the police can’t catch you texting and driving if you delete your messages, all the
police have to do is tap into your phone bill, There it is. (Winfrey, Oprah) People shouldn’t just be
punished for hurting someone in a wreck. It should be stopped in its tracks. Officials should set up a
system where phone companies find out if you were texting while on the road and notify the police.

Yes, technology saves lives every day, and still will forever. But it will also be taking lives forever, if we
don’t do something about it. This practice needs to become illegal, as well as un-cool.