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An alarming study has more than one-third of Virginia drivers taking their hands and eyes off the road to send text messages. According to Vlingo, a company that makes voice-recognition software, 35.6% of drivers in Virginia admit to sending text messages from the road. This percentage ranks Virginia 6^th in the country in terms of percentage.

Texting is even more dangerous on the roads than talking on a cell phone, because it requires the drive to take both his hands and his eyes away from the road. According to Frank Drews of the University of Utah at Salt Lake City, people how try to multitask like this lose their ability to monitor their driving. Drews’ research has found that drivers who are texting are six times more likely to be in an accident than those who are not. Drivers who are talking on a cell phone are, similarly, four times more likely to be in an accident.

The cause of these accidents is that taking our focus off the road causes our braking time to increase by as much as 22%. Drews found that drivers who paid full attention to the road had a reaction time of .88 seconds, but those who were texting and driving had a reaction time of 1.077 seconds. This split second increase in reaction time can be the difference between stopping short and rear-ending someone.

Text messaging is most popular among young, inexperienced drivers. This contributes to the risk that teen drivers already pose by taking their attention from the road. Other studies have found that teen drivers are more likely than adults to be distracted by things like the radio and other passengers in their car.

In 2005, Virginia passed a law banning drivers 18 years and younger from taking on their cell phones while driving. It seems like its about time to institute a similar ban for texting. Maryland, which came in 4^th in the country in the texting while driving survey has already considered a text message ban.

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Weisberg & Zaleski, P.C.
112 College Place
Norfolk, VA 23510

Toll Free: (800) 690-0235
Phone: (757) 622-7740
Fax: (757) 533-9223

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