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In a recent editorial, Pantagraph.com stresses the point made by a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) study on texting while driving: Reading and sending text message on cell phones when you are driving raises the risk of accident to unacceptable levels.
The editor's message was prompted by the death of a 15-year-old girl, killed by a driver who couldn't wait to send a reply to a received message.
VTTI is one of the world's most prominent institutes on roadway safety, and its 2009 study on texting while driving came as a shock. The study involved truck drivers, but the analysts emphasize that the study's conclusions apply to all drivers. Video cameras were placed at different angles in a truck's cab, measuring how often a trucker took his or her eyes off the road to text or read messages.
The scope of the study was impressive-one hundred truck drivers over an 18-month period, covering three million miles.
Rich Hanowski, who oversaw the study, said that texting while driving "is in its own universe of risk." In the moments before a crash or near-crash, drivers typically spend almost five seconds with their eyes off the road, equivalent to covering the length of a football field with your eyes shut. If a driver is texting, the collision risk is 23 times greater than when not texting.
The problem has become a nightmare because of a tenfold increase in texting in just three years. As another analyst put it, "Texting is off the charts, it is crazy to do this."
