It's a Saturday night, and you’re on your way to the biggest party of the year. You have recently turned sixteen and are constantly behind the wheel. As you pull onto the freeway, you feel something vibrate in your pocket. You pull out your phone, and see a message from your best friend, "Where r u?!" Right when you’re about to respond, everything goes black. Six hours later you wake up in the hospital feeling pain on every inch of your body; two broken legs and a sprained wrist. You'd think a cherub was watching over you considering what happened on the other end of the crash. Your mom walks into the room. After asking what happened, she explains that you got in a car crash. The family you crashed with included a woman and her three year old son. Fearing all of the possibilities that could have happened to the family, you ask your mom how they are doing. The little boy had a very ephemeral life considering he died from major head trauma. As for his mom, she's in a coma, possibly for the rest of her life. And all because you felt the need to send, "b rite there." Many people in today's world die because of distracted drivers. Many of them distracted from texting on their cell phones. Thirty states have made it illegal to text while driving. This could save many people's lives, and many people agree with it, but why are so many against it?
To begin, so many lives have been taken from people of all ages texting while driving. It's a fatuous thing to do, but many people just aren't getting it. How are you supposed to pay attention to the road if you aren't even looking at it? Texting while driving causes nearly 25% of all driving accidents in the United States. Not only does it put you at risk; it puts everyone around you at risk too. If you can't pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time while standing still, how do you expect to text and drive with thousands of people around you? Scientists also studied that when you try to do two things at once, you do those things worse than you would if you did them one at a time.
To continue, kids are starting to get cell phones at a younger age and now are more involved in technology. When teenagers get their drivers license for the first time, they feel like they are on top of the world, but what they might not know is that many of their brains are still maturing. 55% of all mobile users who text more than once a day are 18 years old or younger. We should all start to wonder if the consequences for texting while driving should be more severe for people ages 18 and younger so that they won't want to do it in the future. If teenagers have to give $200 of their spending money to the police, that would be like a fish losing all of its water. Maybe punishment is the key to stopping texting while driving.
Also, if you would happen to kill someone in a car accident over a text message, how do you think your conscience would make you feel about that? You'd possibly be taking away a future president, firefighter or even just a stay at home mom. All people whose lives could have made a difference to the world. And when if you were to kill someone, you’re not just killing them, you're killing a part inside of their families’ hearts. Each and every day you would think of that very stupid decision that killed someone, and all just to send a text message that could've waited until you got off the road.
To conclude, texting and driving is a terrible thing to be doing. In 2008, almost 6,000 people were killed and a half-million were injured in crashes related to texting while driving. Many innocent lives were taken because someone decided to look at their phone, instead of other people's futures. Those thirty states that have made this illegal should be rewarded for doing something to try and stop this madness. So many people have been hurt from this, and more people need to start making a stand to make texting while driving illegal in all fifty states. Because if we don't, who knows how many more people will have to suffer.
