[All presented information can be found under the statistics tab at http://www.textinganddrivingsafety.com/]

            Texting and driving is something that teenagers hear about all the time.

“Texting while driving is not safe.” And the list goes on and on. In all honesty though, is texting as you drive that big of a problem? Is it more distracting than talking on the phone? Let’s take a look at the facts.

When you look at the statistics, a lot of car crashes involve texting and driving. In 2011 the number was 23%. That is around 1.3 million crashes involving cell phone usage. That’s a big number, a really big number. This happens because on average reading a text message takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. You can travel a pretty big distance at that speed, and also drift into the other lane. Those who are texting while driving spend around 10% of their time in the other lane. Now one day, in that 10% of time you are in the other lane, a car may be coming at you, and BOOM, you have a head on collision. You can be severely injured, and the other driver can be as well. I highly doubt those consequences are worth the short message on your phone.

Ohio has made it a law that people are prohibited from texting while driving. You are not only endangering those people around you by texting, but now there are the consequences of breaking the law if caught texting.

The main question with texting as you attempt to drive is this; is that short text really worth getting into an accident? If you really must talk to someone, there is the alternative of calling them. According to the info-graphic on textinganddrivingsafety.com, crashes are 1.4x more likely when talking on the phone, when texting and driving car crashes are a monstrous 23x more likely to occur. That’s a huge difference. There are ways to avoid the problem; all you have to do is be smart about it.

Student Calvin Callahan has enough sense to know that texting and driving is not a good idea, “Something like that can wait,” he says.

You’ve heard it before, and I’ll tell you again; Do not text and drive. It could save not only your life, but someone else’s as well.