It is not exactly new or surprising to inform someone that texting or generally using hand-held mobile phones while driving is dangerous. The conscious automatically detects that this is dangerous, if not a crazy habit. All states or countries have laws that prohibit distracted or novice driving. Some states like New York have a total ban on driver’s use of any hand-held devices such as cell phones, stereo remotes, or pagers while driving. Breaking this law drives risks of losing licenses of facing legal charges. People often call, text, and receive phones calls while driving, and these are tasks that take the driver’s attention and focus off the road, thus posing as a dangerous threat to the driver as well as other road users. According to research findings, texting while driving takes the driver’s attention off the road and often leads to the vehicle missing the trail for approximately 4.6 seconds. This is enough time for an accident to occur, especially on busy roads such as highways.
By contrast, driving while texting is more dangerous than talking on the phone since the interactive act takes the driver’s eyes off the road. In line with Wallace, according to the National Transport and Safety Board (NTSB), as opposed to talking through phones, texting increases the risk by approximately 1.3 times the probability of accident due to driver’s distraction. According to Wallace, research findings indicate that it is arguable that talking on wireless cell phones is no safe than using the common hand-held devices, but one of the most significant needs is that the driver must keep his/her eyes on the road.
On analysis of reaction time, various studies also reveal that drivers who use texts while driving are even more prone to worse tragedies than those driving under the influence of drugs. The texting act removes full attention from the road, thus worsening the steering control since the driver has to take a hand(s) off the wheel to read or write the text. Their eyes are off the road, and they are thinking of the information they want to convey. These combinations of factors can easily lead to total impairment and failure to react against possible dangers. There is also the likelihood of driving far, much closer behind other cars when one is driving. Driving while texting is also distracting to other drivers since one is distracted from ensuring the right passage and often ends up driving on the wrong sides or lanes, thus causing interruption of the driver behind or in front.