Community Corner

Texting and Driving: What You Should Know

Do you really want "LOL" to be your final comment?

  • In 2010, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver distraction was the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes, with 3,092 people killed, and crashes resulting in an injury, with 416,000 people wounded.
  • Been in a car in which the driver was texting or talking on the phone? Forty percent of American teenagers say they have, according to a Pew survey.
  • Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times greater than driving while not texting and being distracted, says the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.
  • Eleven percent of drivers aged 18 to 20 who survived an car wreck admitted they were sending or receiving texts when they crashed. 
  • In Georgia, it’s against the law to text and drive.
— Compiled by Patch Editor Rebecca McCarthy


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