Growing up, I was never allowed to use the word “stupid.” The “S” word was the worst thing you could call someone at our house.
I say all that so that you may fully understand the gravity with which I say texting and driving is stupid.
While I made the seemingly neverending journey to Oxford from my parents’ house over this past Easter weekend, the sun set halfway through my drive. It was then that I noticed nearly every car was being driven absentmindedly by a driver who was absorbed in the glow of their phone.
The closer I got to Oxford, the worse it became.
I assume this would have something to do with the fact that most other drivers at that time would be college kids on their way back to school.
Stopped at the traffic light on Highway 6 and Jackson, I took time to observe the cars around me. A glow from a cellphone could be seen in every car at the light.
One SUV filled with college-aged girls had five phones lit up.
How stupid could you be to text while you are driving? And at night no less.
Traveling on an interstate at night in rural North Mississippi with average speeds around 80 miles an hour or a Mississippi Highway with traffic lights and residential drive ways intersecting – and people are texting.
It outraged me.
People think they can multi-task and use that as an excuse, but the honest truth is you cannot.
Just consider the last time you tried to have a conversation with someone who was texting. Did they hear what you said? Did they offer up a timely response? Would it even register with them if you stopped talking and walked away?
It wouldn’t.
Now, picture that same situation with a minor alteration — the distracted person is in control of a two-ton (the average weight of an American car) mass of metal being hurled down a stretch of road. That’s only the tip of the iceberg on how deadly texting and driving can be.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 18 percent of all fatal crashes in 2010 occurred because a driver was occupied with their phone while driving, causing 3,092 fatalities.
Just think how much we, collectively, have increased our phone use in the past four years.
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute finds that text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted.
So whether it is the chilling “it can wait” public service announcements, Dexter McCluster rapping about “staying alive” or me calling you stupid, hopefully something will stick before you have to learn the hard way, at the cost of someone’s life, to never text and drive again.
Anna Rush is a third-year law student from Hattiesburg. Follow her on Twitter at @akrush.
