Don’t Text or Talk on Your Cell While Driving

You can’t drive safely if you’re glued to your smartphone, even hands-free; more than 3,000 people died in 2020 because of distracted driving.

You might think it’s safe to talk or read texts on your smartphone while driving if you’re not holding the phone in your hand. Think again. You can miss up to half of what’s going on around you if you are engaged on your phone, according to the National Safety Council.

More than 3,000 people died in 2020 because of distracted driving, the United States Department of Transportation reports. That’s probably conservative, since people in accidents don’t reliably confess to distracted driving. Meanwhile, police reports may not include exactly why someone ran a red light or didn’t see the other car turning.

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On the day she graduated college, Jacy Good was in a celebratory mood while in a car with her parents and brother. She had just landed her dream job as a team leader for Habitat for Humanity. Then their car was blindsided by a tractor-trailer that had swerved to avoid a young driver who ran a red light. He had been talking on his phone. Her parents were dead on the scene. Good suffered severe head injuries that have robbed her of some cognitive function and limited her mobility.

The state of Iowa is known more for its corn, pig farms, and presidential caucuses, not so much for public salty language. But it began something big when it sent a message to electronic billboards reading “222 traffic deaths this year, get your head out of your apps, drive safely.”

Every Monday commuters saw a new message in screaming orange letters on Iowa’s main highway, Interstate 35.

Such messages, now common across the U.S., are humorous; others are heart-breaking.

One Tennessee variation, “Eyes on the road and your head out of your apps,” is accompanied by another message with a Southern drawl: “buckle up, y’all, it’s the law.”

Similarly, Massachusetts launched a road sign in 2014 that said, “Use yah blinkah.”

In Colorado, state troopers simply flooded the highways on one weekend in March to crack down on texting while driving. The state also has been using the “app” message.

Some states have had public contests for citizens to come up with the next clever yet meaningful message. Massachusetts received about 500 entries for its message.

State transportation spokespersons note that while they appreciate the effectiveness of clever messages, they want them short to get your attention back on the road as quickly as possible. They mix them up to keep you from getting too acclimated to the same one, which translates to your forgetting it.

As smartphones have transformed our lives, it’s harder than ever to ignore them while you drive, especially since you may have the phone propped up to give you directions.  

Advice on this issue is pretty basic. First, turn off your phone. You’re not missing anything really important.

Second, don’t text while you’re driving. You know that’s not very smart, but when you’re on the highway in your car, how many people have you seen doing it?

You have to ask yourself if it’s worth it. Watch some of the videos of the brave souls who have been willing to share their tragedies so that you might seriously think about it.

Whatever the distraction is — a call from a friend, a text, a notification — driving is more important. If you must look at your phone, pull over.

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