Texting and driving should be illegal because it is very dangerous not only for the person who is texting and driving, but for the other rivers on the road. If a person is texting and driving, they are paying more attention to their phone than the safety of the other drivers on the road. I was almost in a car accident once because of someone who was texting while driving. I was sitting at a red light in the left turn only lane. My light turned green and I checked to make sure it was safe to go. Then, I lightly pressed on my gas pedal.
When I was halfway through the intersection, I looked out of the corner of my eye and see this car that is going extremely fast and seemed like she had no intention of slowing down. So I stepped on my breaks, muttered a curse word under my breath, and blared my horn at her. She did not even slow down or look at me as she drove by; she was just moving along like nothing was wrong. But when I saw her face, I realized that she was on her phone while she was flying down the road with no concern for what color the traffic light was.
I was furious that this woman had decided it would be a better idea to check her Facebook rather than drive safely. We both could have gotten seriously injured. Another instance where texting and driving almost caused an accident was when my uncle told me he looked down for one second to check his phone and he almost slammed into someone’s bumper. He said that he was speeding because he was trying to make it to work on time and his phone made a short ringing sound, which indicated that he had a text message. The first time he ignored it, but it rang again.
He thought that it must be something important if someone is texting him more than once. He found a good time to look sown at his phone when the cars in from of him seemed to need to slow down. With his eyes on his phone for less than a few seconds, he looked up and immediately had to slam on his breaks in order to not crush the back of the person’s car in front of him. He said after that almost very bad accident, he will not be looking at his phone anymore while driving. It is looking away for a couple of seconds while driving that could make the difference between life and death.
For some people, like my uncle, they are very fortunate to be alive and say that they will not ever text while driving again. But for the woman that almost slammed into the side of my truck, she probably will not learn until something terrible happens to her or someone close to her. It is sad to me that it take people dying for other people to realize that texting and driving is extremely dangerous not just for the texting and driving person, but for the everyone around them as they are driving.
There are countless horrific incidences that could have been avoided if people would just put their phone down and focus on one thing at a time. Even if you think you need to check you phone because it is very important, stop and think to yourself: “Is this worth getting seriously injured, or even dying for? ” More often than not it is not as important as you think it is at the time. But if you must be in contact with someone right away, you should call them when you are safely stopped and able to call without driving so you do not put others’ lives in danger. There is all the time in the world to text, but not when you are driving.
