Sec­onds before impact…

Yep. Just a moment, that’s all you need to slip out that quick reply on your phone. By now, there’s even a good chance that you feel your­self so adept at tex­ting that you can punch out all your words within the space of a cou­ple sec­onds; lit­tle enough time that you can type, fin­ish, and look back up at the road while you’re dri­ving and keep your­self on course. If you’re dri­ving steadily and all you’re doing is press­ing out a quick mes­sage, your elbows or even maybe one hand still on the wheel while you con­cen­trate on your phone and per­haps look­ing up every so often to scan the road, you should be fine, right? It’s just a moment.

Unfor­tu­nately, that’s also just about enough time for your car to travel about 50, 100, 200, feet. Just those few sec­onds that your con­cen­tra­tions away from the road, and you could swerve across the cen­ter line, into the side of the road, or straight across a turn.

But some peo­ple will protest at that. Yes, there is the chance of swerv­ing but if you’re good enough at dri­ving, how much chance is there of los­ing con­trol? Maybe you’re not a teenager, you’ve been dri­ving for a while, and you can mostly keep con­trol of the wheel while you text. Or, per­haps you are still 16, 17, 18, 19, but you’re good enough to keep con­trol. Well, keep con­trol? Not all the time, but, there is the chance. Be pre­pared for any sud­den obsta­cles in the road like cars run­ning the stop sign or red light, con­fused ani­mals, or pedes­tri­ans? Not likely, at all. But that’s just how long it takes.

Sure, you need to reply to a text. Or you’re in a rush and you need to notify some­one out there about some­thing. Or, maybe, your phone is as much a part of you as your hand, and you just can’t keep off of it. Well then please, stop off the road. It’s just not worth the dras­tic and likely con­se­quences tak­ing your con­cen­tra­tion off the road can eas­ily result in. It’s actu­ally a true fact that thou­sands die every year from phone-related car crashes. And they’re not very pretty deaths at all.

Want proof? Check out www.ugotbrains.com/too-true-texting.htm for actual pic­tures of a texting-related acci­dent. If you don’t have a strong stom­ach, I wouldn’t look at the graphic labeled pic­tures, though. Look­ing at pic­tures of two pieces of a guy and his entrails spilled out onto the road can def­i­nitely unset­tle plenty of people.

~Jenni K.