Texting is quick and handy, but it can be deadly. However, fatalities among teenagers have been reduced by laws that ban texting while driving.
Laws that ban the act of texting and driving have reduced the deaths of teenagers in traffic accidents by 11 percent, according to a recent study from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The first text message was sent in 1992 from Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis, but texting did not become popular until the early 2000’s. Texting has since become a social norm due to its popularity and accessibility among people around the world. Many people find texting quicker and easier than making a phone call.
A problem that has arisen due to this increase in texting is the distraction it causes to drivers.
“Distracted driving covers every distraction from texting — to changing a radio station or people-watching pedestrians on the sidewalk,” Amanda Brown, public information officer for the Governor’s Highway Safety Office of Tennessee, said. “One of the biggest components of distracted driving has been texting due to its popularity among the masses.”
The first texting ban was passed by the state of Washington in 2007, a couple months before Apple released the first iPhone. As of today, 44 states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban texting for all drivers.
Of the states that do not have a texting ban for all drivers, four (Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Mississippi) restrict texting by novice drivers — a person who has held a driver’s license for less than two years or periods adding up to two years — and three (Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi) prohibit school bus drivers from texting while driving. Arizona and Montana are the only states that do not prohibit texting and driving.
Dexter McCluster, now a running back for the Tennessee Titans, was involved in a serious car accident when he was at Ole Miss. He was texting at the time of the accident and later wrote and performed a rap, which aired as a public service commercial on TV, with the refrain “If you want to stay alive, don’t text and drive.”
Ryan Glover, a freshman broadcast journalism major at the University of Memphis, said that banning texting from driving has been a great way for law enforcement to reduce the number of people who text and drive.
“I know that texting is a big problem for many drivers, especially teenagers,” Glover said. “The texting ban has done a great job in making those drivers aware of the dangers that follow texting while driving.”
According to the Tennessee Distracted Driver Traffic Crashes by Year and County 2004-2014 study — of the 19,037 total crashes, 4,154 were caused by distracted teenaged drivers. Out of the 4,154 accidents: 10 were fatal, 108 caused incapacitated injuries, 379 caused non-incapacitated injuries and 2,973 caused property damage of $400 or more.
“That is 21.82 percent of the total crashes in the state of Tennessee,” Brown said. “While this study doesn’t center solely on texting and driving, texting is one of the main distractions for drivers in today’s world and is a large percentage of those crashes.”
Shelby County has the highest number of fatalities so far in 2014, compared with other counties in the state of Tennessee, with 93 deaths due to traffic crashes.
Lauren Cedotal, a sophomore nursing major at the U of M, said that she thinks the texting bans have done a great job of decreasing the number of deaths of teenagers in traffic accidents, but she wants to see teenagers obey the law and put their phones away.
“I have a younger brother who turns 16 pretty soon and is going to start driving on his own,” Cedotal said. “He is on his phone a lot too, so hopefully he is aware of his own safety as well as the safety of others while he is driving.”
John Hensley, a lawyer who works in downtown Memphis, said he was on his way to the office one day when he was hit by a young woman who was texting while driving.
“It was a fender bender,” Hensley said. “I know that there are several incidents like this that have caused serious injury or death. Thankfully mine was not too serious.”
Hensley said that while he understands the “accessibility and handiness of the phones today, there is no harm done in just putting the cell phone away and paying attention to the road.”
Texting is considered a Class C misdemeanor – a relatively minor criminal act – in the state of Tennessee. A person who is ticketed for texting while driving is subject to a fine of up to $50 plus court costs, but since it is a non-moving violation it does not add points to your driving record.
A new study by researchers at the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) shows that even though texting restrictions have been laid down, the number of crashes has not decreased but instead increased.
The study says that drivers have instead “moved their phone down and out of sight when they texted in recognition of what they were doing was illegal.”
This in turn has increased the number of crashes slightly because drivers were still taking their eyes off the road in an effort to hide the phone while texting.
“I think that the texting bans are successful,” Stuart Settles, a senior broadcast journalism major at the U of M, said. “But until they start enforcing the ban a little more strictly and really crack down on the texters on the road, people will still find ways to text and drive.”
Brown said that while texting bans are a good first step in reducing the number of crashes and fatalities on the road, it is up to the drivers to make the right decisions while driving. She also said that “if there are passengers in the car, hopefully those passengers are not afraid to speak up.”
“It takes a lot of courage to tell someone, whether it is a friend, relative or whomever, to put their phone down,” Brown said. “I just hope that these people realize how dangerous texting can be and will act out against texting and driving. The ball is in their court.”
