I’ve been driving a lot lately. In the past two weeks, I’ve put about 1,000 miles on my car, mainly from driving down to Smith Mountain Lake and then driving from the lake to classes in Roanoke four days a week. The miles add up.
Most of this driving happens in the Smith Mountain Lake area, an area rich with farmland and spotted with the occasional Kroger, church or gas station. The average speed limit is 55 mph, but the average car speed feels like 40 mph. See that problem?
Well, it's happening because of people texting and driving. And this needs to stop.
I know it’s a far leap to say that all slow driving is caused by texting and driving, but it’s not all slow driving. It’s those who make the decision to pay more attention to their phones than the road in front of them. It’s these people who put us all in danger.
I began to notice this during my commute to class, where I’d often pass cars going 10-15 miles under the speed limit. I’d wait until the dotted median line or until there was a clear second lane to pass these slow cars in front of me, but this happens all too often. Usually when I looked over, these cars were texting (or in one case, an old man was opening a map and spreading it across his steering wheel, which can still be dangerous since he's not focused on the road). I’m from northern Virginia, where texting and driving is like sprinkles and ice cream: they go together. I knew it happened and I was just so surprised to see it here, where you have to be attentive while driving with so many hidden driveways, sharp curves and animals on the road.
If it’s hard enough to drive these windy roads with full focus, then why would you still add in that risk of texting?
I know that we’ve all seen the anti-texting and driving ad campaigns, the shocking commercials on television, and if you’re from my home state of Virginia and got your license in 2015 like I did, then you had to watch the themed texting and driving videos as you sat in court (which is really a high school auditorium with a judge) to get your driver’s license. It all tends to blur out, especially because after seeing these videos so many times, we've all become desensitized to them. But that shouldn't limit their importance, especially with how that one decision of texting and driving can create lifelong consequences.
There’s no reason or excuse why a text message should be that important, and if some reason why you have to answer it while driving, please make a phone call or use Siri or Google Assistant. To find out more about distracted driving, check out the NHTSA's report on distracted driving.
