Texting While Driving

Texting on a cell phone has become very popular throughout the United States.  At one point, talking on a cell phone was the thing, but now it’s also texting.  Now, you’ve got folks talking and/or texting on their cell phones while driving.  What a deadly combination!  Yet alone, texting while driving is very dangerous.  People just do not get that we all have to take the responsibility to keep our eyes on the road at all times.  All it takes is a split second for the car in front of you to stop or for someone to cut right in front of you while driving.

For me, texting takes a lot of my attention.  So texting while I’m driving is a “no no” for me and I refrain from texting while driving.  Even yacking on my cell phone while driving is not an easy task.  Keeping my eyes on the road is very important to me.  I live and work in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area (Virginia) and the traffic around this area is horrific.  So all of your attention NEEDS to be on your driving, not texting or talking on your cell phone.  Yet, if you look around while you’re sitting in traffic, you’ll see dozens of drivers yacking on their cell phones, texting on their phones.  While I’m sitting in traffic, I’ll leave it up to the music channels to entertain me versus talking on my cell or texting.

Now, I took the liberty to research which states have completely banned texting while driving.  There are 18 states who have currently banned texting.  Here are the states:

• Washington
• Oregon
• California
• Utah
• Colorado
• Minnesota
• Arkansas
• Louisiana
• Illinois
• Tennessee
• North Carolina
• Virginia
• Maryland
• District of Columbia
• New Jersey
• New York
• Connecticut
• New Hampshire

I am sure in time there will be more states added to this list, but this is very good that these states have banned texting while driving.  Now, that’s not to say that people aren’t still texting.  I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who are still texting while driving.  They probably know the laws, but surely do not care about the laws.  Laws are laws!  But again, if you run a red light, you are breaking the law.  If you go over the speed limit, you are breaking the law.  If you run red lights on a school bus, you are breaking the law.

So to all of the people out there, please keep your eye on the road and less time on your cell phone!