Texting and driving a dangerous roadway combo

By Michael Mandeville ’11
The Roundup

As I hit my turn signal to switch lanes I passively check my blind spot and find the driver looking down from the wheel checking something.

Unless they are reading or playing their Nintendo DS, it is highly probable that they are texting away like there is no tomorrow.

I guess this should not bother me that much, but it does.

A poll by The Roundup asking if students ever text while driving found that of the 109 who participated, close to 60 percent either occasionally texted or frequently texted.

Sadly, I’m not bothered because of the staggering statistics about cell phone use as they correspond to driving and the severe risks that could develop out of the situation.

This month The Roundup reported that according to study by Human Factors quarterly journal, cell phone distraction resulted in about 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths in just one year.

In another study done by the University of Utah, texting while driving has become as dangerous and deadly as drunk driving because it slows drivers’ response times.

No, it’s not those statistics; it’s more about what I immediately think of the driver.

I cannot get it out of my head that these people think they just own the road and it’s their field to do what ever they please.

Stop texting please and just drive.

You do not always have to be connected to your best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend or parents.

It is OK to not be at the disposal of people for the 20 minutes you are in car. Really.

This all started when a friend of mine would constantly text while driving.

After his third time swerving into the next lane he would say that he usually is a really good driver and that he didn’t know why he kept slipping.

It’s because you are texting!

And when I brought it to his attention that he shouldn’t be texting in the car next time we were together, he told me not to worry because he had, pitifully, practiced driving with his—knees.

I really hope he is the exception because I don’t know what I’d do in a world of socially absorbed knee-drivers.

Think like Roger Bond Choquette ’10. “No… because it’s just stupid” he said when asked if he texted while driving. “I’d be putting my life in danger and those around me in danger.”

Thank you Bond Choquette, you are just as hip on the inside as you are on the outside.