Why you shouldn’t text and drive. Yes, you do get distracted, more than you think.
Yeah, I know, sounds like a no-brainer. But, y’know, you get that little beep on the mobile, you think, “Hey, I can type out a few letters and hit enter,” and it’s easy to do. And, really, the only problems come when something unexpected happens — like a signal changing, someone swerving into your lane, etc.
Which happened to me yesterday. Some idjit started pulling right into me. She was slightly ahead, so I could see her (and slam on the horn when I realized what was happening). If I had been texting, or otherwise distracted — she would have hit me, and I would have been bumped into the center median … at best.
Not worth it.
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My roommate (age 21) texts with both hands below the wheel. I’m no longer willing to be a passenger in her car. Even when she’s not texting, she drives too aggressively, but cites the fact that she’s never gotten a ticket, nor had an accident, as “proof” that she’s driving safely.
I started using an earpiece months ago in anticipation of Washington’s new hands-free cell phone law (and I’ve never been a texter–tested it when I got my phone, but immediately abandoned the practice). Roomie has only contempt for this law (and possibly for me, whom she considers, at best, an “overly cautious” driver–my words, not the stronger ones she uses).
I’m not a multi-tasker, and never will be.
Reminds me of the George Carlin joke — “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”
From a risk perspective, your room mate is correct that track record so far indicates the *frequency* of the risk is very small. The problem is with the *magnitude* of the risk is high. Russian Roulette with a thousand chambers still can have a very unpleasant “failure.”
And, of course, it’s not just an issue of how good a driver *she* it’s how good everyone else on the road around her is, too. “The world’s best swordsman fears the world’s worst.”