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Is text messaging legal while driving?

Introduction

Certainly, the capacity to stay connected to others while traveling afforded by cell phones, especially through texting, is hugely beneficial, making it possible to receive information about road conditions or to reach assistance in case of emergency. Like all forms of technology, however, misuse can produce disastrous consequences. These superfast communication systems endanger people's life, their family and the third party. In this way, engagement in text messaging while driving can be accurately described as a misuse of the technology.

Discussion

In recent years, text messaging or ''texting'' has become a pervasive form of communication. Unfortunately, however, many people text while driving, prompting a growing concern that texting while driving poses a potential risk to public safety. In fact, the National Safety Council (2010) estimated that cell phone use and texting while driving are responsible for 28%of car accidents or 1.6million accidents per year. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2012), texting is particularly perilous, because it involves multiple sources of distraction. In response to this growing national epidemic, state and federal agencies, as well as coalitions of citizens such as “Mothers against Texting and Driving (MATD)” are leading public communication campaigns to ban texting while driving in an effort to save lives. To date, 39 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands have outlawed the practice for all drivers, while 5 other states have imposed texting restrictions on novice drivers, and 3 states prohibit school bus drivers from texting (Governors' Highway Safety Association, 2012, see appendix).

Text messaging while driving is grave because operating a vehicle is quite a complex task in traffic. It needs concentration and judgment which might get affected by the distractions sending and receiving of text messages create. People who chose to text while driving often lose their concentration off the road and fail to judge the gap between the vehicles or their speed. They also become indifferent of the weather conditions such as raining or the slippery roads and heavy winds. People react slowly when they are using cell phone especially when they are in the middle of some deep conversation (Robbins, pp. n.d.). Owing to this fact, they respond late to the traffic lights and other signs. In fact the barking process also becomes slower. The most common mistake drivers do while they are texting is that they wander out of their lanes and break the traffic rules which often creates a mess or brings devastating results.

Recent media coverage both in the United States and abroad was designed to trigger such change in behavior by positioning texting while driving as more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (Austin, pp. a 1-2; Chang, pp. a 1-2). A film about the dangers of text messaging while driving was released in 2009 in which 17 year old girl was shown distracted with a text message on her cell phone. She was driving ...