By Erin Rodway, Executive Editor
Flashback: it’s May 23, and all of us are enjoying our weekend. Whether it be swimming, shopping, sleeping or just hanging around, we are all enjoying life. But, on Rt. 47 in Elburn, a road most of us Kaneland students know pretty well, two families’ lives changed forever.
An Aurora native driving south, who wasn’t paying attention to the road in front of her for whatever reason, slammed into a stopped car. That car slammed into a car waiting to turn left onto Smith Rd. And that car hit a group of six motorcyclists riding northbound. Two people died in that accident that day, and neither person was the woman not paying attention. Not paying attention while driving—does that make sense to you? I know it doesn’t to me.
Who knows why she wasn’t looking at the road; maybe she was changing the radio station, or she dropped something on the floor of her car. Or maybe she was texting. Now, I could lecture all day and night, but it’d be a waste of time. It’s really simple: Do not text and drive. Don’t text and drive. Don’t text while driving. When driving, don’t text. It kills people.
A study done in 2008 by the Transport Research Laboratory found that texting while driving is almost three times more dangerous than driving at the legal alcohol limit. More dangerous than driving drunk. Let that sink in. I’m sure most of you wouldn’t let your friends drink and drive, so why is letting them text and drive better? It’s not, and maybe you should try and do something about it. And if you text while driving, stop.
Would taking a 10-minute break in a conversation really be worse than potentially killing someone, or even yourself? I mean, enough tragedy has happened at KHS already. Do we really need any more?
“It’s crucial for young drivers to maintain their absolute focus on driving and not be distracted,” Superintendent Dr. Charles McCormick said.
I’m not going to pretend I’ve never done it, because I have. But after thinking about it, I realized how stupid it was and how stupid I had acted by texting while driving. What’s the point, anyway? A conversation is more important than everything we’ve learned in Driver’s Ed? Than getting to your destination safely? I think not.
And if you disagree, stay home, or wherever you are, and have that conversation. Don’t get into a car. I know most teens that do it will say they have a way to text while driving while still being able to see the road clear enough to drive, but the Virginia Tech Transportation Institution board would beg to differ.
The VTTI found in a study that people who “send text messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a crash than non-distracted drivers.”
Luckily, lawmakers decided to do something about it. Eighteen states have made texting while driving illegal, and Illinois was the 17th to do so. Hopefully the 32 states that haven’t yet will get with the program. Throughout the entire state of Illinois, tickets for texting or talking on a cell phone while driving can cost you $75, Resource Officer Paul Warren said.
“[Cell phones] cause a problem at KHS,” Dean Renee Grisch said.”Texting takes the concentration away from the class, where it’s supposed to be.”
And I agree; texting is getting out of hand. There are abbreviations for almost every word now, and frankly, communication just isn’t the same. Texting has changed relationships. It’s taken the communication, a very important factor, out. Everyone knows it’s easier to just text someone than call. I’m sure 97 percent of the teenage population has an unlimited texting plan. I’m sure the number of textaholics is on the rise, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon.
Textaholics. You know them, the people who are more clued into their phone than they are cued in to you when you’re with them. You usually have to repeat yourself when talking to them. They text in class, regardless of the consequences of getting caught. They’re the ones who text and drive the most, and they could use a break.
“I’d consider myself a textaholic. [I text so much] so I can stay in touch with my friends,” senior Sam Assell said. “But I don’t text and drive. That’s just stupid.”
We may never know what caused the accident last May, but we do know one thing: distraction is distraction, no matter what its form, and that’s never a good thing when driving. Texting while driving is never safe, no matter how confident you are in your multitasking skills. So do the rest of us drivers a favor. Stay off your phone when behind the wheel.