Texting and driving is illegal and yet it continues to be a growing problem for America. It seems like after legislation finally passed for Georgia in 2010 thanks to state lawmakers Allen Peake and Amos Amerson the issue was put in the desk drawer deemed as "fixed," at least until halfway into 2015. As we all know the issue is not fixed and distracted driving has become responsible for ever increasing numbers of deaths in the following six years. Distracted driving is lowering our morale, eroding our culture and becoming a national epidemic with no signs of slowing down.
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Texting and driving adds up to a huge fraction of what kills our citizens, with distracted or impaired driving estimated to make up 74 percent of the 1,414 Georgia roadway fatalities for 2015, according to the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. Although this number includes other impairments like drugs and alcohol there were still over 1,000 people, individuals who did not have to die, whose death was the result of human error — whether it was their own or someone else's. When we live in an era where automobiles are getting safer and more autonomous there is no excuse for this shameful behavior, we used to able to blame manufacturers for building unsafe cars, but now we can only blame ourselves for being unsafe drivers.
A crash test to show the advances in safety between 1959 and 2009.
Thankfully our state government responded when the number of fatalities on roads increased for the first time in nine years. Gov. Deal launched the DriveAlert ArriveAlive (DAAA) program in 2015 which focuses on distracted and impaired driving. This is truly a great program, but the government can only do so much with awareness. It's also a shame that just fines and license points haven't had the desired effect and proves that it takes the individual to change, not the laws.
Even when we aren't the ones breaking the law texting and driving causes an annoyance to the other drivers on the road. Too often, we find ourselves at a stop light having to give a courtesy honk to the driver in front of us who is more concerned about where they are going to get lunch with their friend than making that left on a green arrow. We may have to swerve to avoid a driver that cannot maintain a lane due to commenting on how cute their friend's puppy is. Sometimes a driver will be well below the posted speed limit because they are too busy with responding to the boss about business to actually drive.
In June 2015, I wrote an article titled "I-16: South Georgia's Most Dangerous Road?" and I blamed a variety of reasons for the five deaths of my fellow Georgia Southern students, but when it was determined as texting and driving in December 2015, I changed my opinion — I no longer think it's the large trucks, the two lanes or even speed that worries me, it's the other drivers.
I find it ironic that America — a land defined by its car culture with Henry Ford putting the world on wheels when he built the Model T and NASCAR giving the working folks a past-time —has these issues with distracted driving. We are people that love being in the driver's seat jamming out to tunes like "Chillin' It" by Cole Swindell or "White Walls" by Macklemore. Let's get back to looking at the road ahead, keeping our hands at 10 and 2 and off the keypad.
