Law could stop easily preventable deaths
With the immensely negative publicity texting while driving has received over the past five years, one would think there would be a law banning what has been described as being almost as deadly as driving drunk.
But South Carolina is one of only eight states yet to make texting and driving illegal. It is imperative that South Carolina enacts this law soon.
A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-texting driver, according to the Ad Council on Texting and Driving Prevention. South Carolina’s roads are already dangerous enough as it is, as drivers seem to have dozens of other distractions other than their cellular device. Add texting into the mix, and fatal wrecks are even more likely.
Though the regulation of other things, like eating or smoking at the wheel, isn’t the most prudent way of dealing with driver distraction, banning texting entirely is. Taking one’s eyes off the road isn’t multitasking, but rather driving blind. This habit that most people don’t think twice about has caused 1.3 million crashes in a matter of a year. Nearly 13 percent of 18- to 20-year-old drivers involved in car wrecks admitted to texting or talking on their mobile devices at the time of the crash, according to textinganddrivingsafety.com. With innumerable statistics showing the hazards, there is no reason South Carolina shouldn’t outlaw one of the most easily preventable causes of wrecks.