What Are the Pros and Cons of Texting While Driving?
The only pro to texting while driving is that a message can be sent immediately rather than waiting; however, there are numerous cons to texting while driving including the fact that it is illegal and that it often causes lethal accidents. Most people agree that the cons of death, harm to oneself and others and illegal proceedings are not worth the ability to send a text sooner.
It is a known scientific fact that texting while driving is the cause of 25 percent of all car accidents as evidenced by the National Safety Council’s study. Yet up to 97percent of all teens text while they drive and 77 percent of all teens have seen their parents text while they drive.
Texting slows reaction times by 37 percent while drinking the legal limit slows driver reaction times by 13 percent. A slower reaction time is a serious consequence of texting while driving and the primary reason why drivers who text are more likely to get into accidents and also more likely to get into lethal accidents. However, researchers at the Transport Research Library found that speaking or talking on a handheld telephone is still the most dangerous and delaying reaction activity. It slows reaction time by 46 percent.
Google Glass was recently tested, but it too failed the safety driving tests. The study showed that drivers who used Google Glass had significantly slower reaction times when compared with drivers who did not.
