Text messaging is a dangerous and unnecessary distraction to drivers of all ages. It requires you to take your hands off the wheel to type the words, and it also draws your eyes away from the road to look at the screen. It reduces your alertness as a driver because your attention is divided between tasks. Visual, manual and mental capabilities are compromised simultaneously, making you more susceptible to being in an accident.

I’m sure some people think they are such pros at texting that they can successfully multitask. While it might be possible for some to text without getting into a wreck, I wouldn’t recommend trying it. According to the Orlando Car Accident Lawyer Blog, a recent study involving 19 to 24 year olds showed that texting made an accident six times more likely to occur. It takes longer to respond when braking and significantly lowers one’s ability to monitor his or her driving behavior.

Even if you think you can text safely from behind the wheel, would you trust everyone else on the road to do the same? Imagine how dangerous the roads would become if every single person (school bus drivers, housewives, taxi drivers, tourists, teens, EMTs, senior citizens, semi-truck drivers, etc.) were all texting while driving. Even worse, imagine how many people might be injured or killed as a result of such reckless behavior.

Last month, a Metrolink train engineer’s failure to stop at a red signal resulted in an accident of 25 fatalities in southern California, according to the Los Angeles Times. The engineer was texting on his cell phone during the minutes leading up to the crash. How many accidents will need to occur before we realize texting on the road should be illegal? Kentucky needs to join the states of California, Alaska, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington in passing a law that will ban text messaging while driving.

Megan Collins

international studies junior