Most of this generation would say their phone is an extension of themselves. Your phone has everything on it: friends, family, socials, music, et cetera. Answering a text takes away your attention for about five seconds. If you are traveling at 55 mph, five seconds is enough time to travel the length of a football field. Five seconds is the time it takes you to go from the road to the ditch.
Guidance administrative assistant Cathy Treinen offered her perspectives on texting and driving. “I know that my kids text while they’re driving. We preach to them that you really shouldn’t do it because if it happens, like in a split second, no matter how good you are of a texter, you know, it just takes that one second,” said Treinen. In 2022, 94 percent of teen drivers reported acknowledging the dangers of texting and driving, although 35 percent admitted to doing it anyway.
Members of the community, Lisa Krueger and Jake Pieffle, were unfortunately impacted by someone who was not paying attention due to texting. “We were headed up to Portage… on Highway 51… There was a car ahead of us that stopped due to a flock of turkeys in the road. We stopped… We were just about to move again when a F150 pickup truck rear ended us, going 60 to 70 mph. The impact threw us a 180 and rolled us into the ditch,” said Krueger. Both Krueger and Pieffle were sent to the hospital and released later that day with minor injuries.
The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year. On top of that, texting is by far the most dangerous activity.
21 percent of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by their cell phones. There is also the perspective of someone who has caused an accident due to texting while driving. A person who wishes to remain anonymous was close with an individual who did just that. “A little girl was waiting for the bus. Someone hit her. He was texting. I know that it really affected him a lot. He was also just a kid,” said the person. Causing an accident can take an incredible toll on a person, but even more on the family that may have lost their child, sibling, or parent because of the accident.
The next time you’re driving and reach for your phone, think about the consequences that could arise if you respond to that text. Think about your community and the many people affected by someone’s mistake in picking up their phone.
