Driving is a privilege that many people take for granted. We’re living in a world where answering a call during rush hour is the norm and people see no wrong in it. Drivers today see texting and driving as multitasking instead of danger.

Driving while texting has been banned in many states or made illegal. Driving while texting is more dangerous than driving under the influence of marijuana and alcohol because it involves three out of three types of categories of distracted driving.

Studies show that drivers who text while driving have greater collision risk than drivers who aren’t texting. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute used cameras to continuously observe light vehicle drivers and truckers for more than 6 million miles (anonymous, 2009).

Drivers looked at their devices for nearly five seconds right before a crash or collision, which was enough time to cover a football field driving 55 mph. The study also established that headset cell phone use is not significantly safer than hand-held because the main dangers related with both are answering, dialing, and other activities that take drivers’ eyes off the road.

Texting behind the wheel is bad all on its own but some people still feel a need to compare it to drunk driving as if one is better than the other.

Texting while driving has taken many lives. Nowadays you can’t watch television without seeing at least one commercial about someone who just couldn’t wait to text someone back and in the process extinguished a life.

Driving without texting is a danger in its own and those who do both should be punished. I speak from experience because I use to be the one texting and driving. I figured as long as I didn’t take my eyes off the road I couldn’t harm anyone but yet I fooled myself. Last year on my way home from picking up my kids, I was texting my mother and got into an accident.

The lady I hit was with child by the grace of god she and my children walked away from this incident with no scratches. Ever since then I have been advocating for harder laws on texting and driving. I could have ruined my life just because I wanted to tell my mother I was laughing out loud “LOL.”

Ways to eliminate texting while driving is making it illegal and banning it. Another way to eliminate texting while driving is positive reinforcement. Texting while driving might not seem as harmful as it sounds. I believe lawmakers should do more. If a teen or adult get caught drunk driving, then their arrested. The same law ought to be for texting or talking on the phone while driving. Because music on their MP3 player can be twice as risky as someone who just got their license.

Tiffany Goodwin is a Tower staff writer. Email her a [email protected]