Not a laughing (or texting) matter.

Not a laughing (or texting) matter.

Texting while driving is serious stuff.

I’m guilty.

Now, I’ve stopped from actually texting while moving – but if honest, I do check e-mails and text messages while driving. It’s horribly wrong.

If you are doing it while driving, things can go horribly wrong.

This doesn't usually happen when I turn into my driveway.

Studies show that one in five text while driving (They are the ones that admit to it). That figure rises to one in three for drivers between the ages 18 – 34.

Most of us won’t get behind the wheel of a car after too much to drink, but texting while driving more dangerous than driving after drinking.

This from Car and Driver…“Alterman (The test driver) fared much, much worse. While reading a text and driving at 35 mph, his average baseline reaction time of 0.57 second nearly tripled, to 1.44 seconds. While texting, his response time was 1.36 seconds. These figures correspond to an extra 45 and 41 feet, respectively, before hitting the brakes. His reaction time after drinking averaged 0.64 second and, by comparison, added only seven feet. The results at 70 mph were similar: Alterman’s response time while reading a text was 0.35 second longer than his base performance of 0.56 second, and writing a text added 0.68 second to his reaction time. But his intoxicated number increased only 0.04 second over the base score, to a total of 0.60 second.

As with the younger driver, Alterman’s slowest reaction times were a grim scenario. He went more than four seconds before looking up while reading a text message at 35 mph and over three and a half seconds while texting at 70 mph. Even in the best of his bad reaction times while reading or texting, Alterman traveled an extra 90 feet past his baseline performance; in the worst case, he went 319 feet farther down the road. Moreover, his two-hands-on-the-phone technique resulted in some serious lane drifting.” http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1076338&topart=safety

Most adults realize manipulating a keypad while driving is unacceptable behavior. As tempted as I am to think, it’s just a “<” and a “3” to my husband; I’m not doing it any more. People die in car crashes.

When you are young, that kind of stuff  happens to someone else.

If the thought of your teenage getting behind the wheel with their cell sends you running up the side of overturned vehicle, what about this idea? There is a new application for cell phones that will prevent texting and driving.

Textecution works like this. When the phone is traveling faster than 10mph, Textecution disables the phone’s texting feature so text messages cannot be sent or received. Once the phone is at rest, or traveling at a speed slower than 10mph, the driver can send and receive messages.    http://www.textecution.com/

I am going to look into it — for my teenage driving son…

 and for myself.

A Jacksonville, Florida local news report on how Textecution works..