A new study shows that texting while driving becomes even more dangerous with age.
Source: www.psmag.com
On the way home this evening, I watched a few people txting and driving, no biggie, it was on the motorway, so not many corners. Yes I’m being sarcastic. Only two weeks ago I watched video of a car that crashed straight into the back of a stationary vehicle parked on the ‘safety strip’, no hint of braking involved.
So what does this story tell us? Older people don’t multitask as well as younger people, No surprises there. However here’s the thing. Young people who have good fast reflexes, obviously trying really hard on the simulator still crossed the centreline 25% of the time, when txting while driving.
Have a little think about that. How many reasonably sharp corners do you drive around every day when you are dropping off the kids, going to work or doing what you usually do. Now imagine if a mentally agile young driver crosses into your lane while they are on the phone. Let’s say only 1 in a hundred are txting, but they cross the centreline 1 in 4 times while they are doing it.
What do you think the odds are of you or someone you know being the victim of someone who thinks they are OK, a good driver, momentarily distracted, taking a chance to look away from the road, just for a few moments? Not much?
Here’s a statistic for you from 2012 in the USA. In 2012 an estimated 421,000 people suffered injuries due to crashes involving a distracted driver. That’s not the number of crashes, but the number of people who were injured where the injuries were reported. 3,328 people died. Last year (2013) over 153 Billion txt messages were being sent a month in the USA.
Oh and by the way, for the self congratulatory young people reading this message and being pleased that they are so much less likely to crash while txting, 10% of all drivers under 20 years of age who died, were reported as having been distracted at the time.
If it’s that important, why not pull over to the side of the road (not the motorway) and do it safely? I wish you a very merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.
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