Woodlands Online poll revealed over 16 percent of local drivers text while driving

THE WOODLANDS, Texas—On September 19, 2012, the day a national campaign to discourage texting while driving was launched, a Woodlands Online poll revealed (those who took the poll) over 16% engaged in texting while driving.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)…

- Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field.

- A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into an accident than a non-texting driver.

- Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashes, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes).

A national spokesperson for NHTSA said if you text while driving, it’s not a matter of if, but when you will have an accident. It’s a form of Russian Roulette.

Three days ago the 60 Minutes team interviewed NFL super agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and commented on his texting while driving. “I use two phones while driving,” said Rosenhaus. “One to text, the other to receive incoming calls.”

When contacted about the effectiveness of the “It Can Wait” campaign, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department spokesman, Lt. Dan Norris, said “Texting while driving is a dangerous habit. Anything, any program, that encourages safe driving, is a benefit.”

‘It Can Wait’ is a national movement tapping into the power of social media and personal networks to make texting and driving as unacceptable as drinking and driving. September 19 has been designated as the day for this national campaign launched by the The U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and more than 140 other organizations, to discourage the practice of texting while driving. The 'It Can Wait' program urged drivers to visit the website by the same name, and make the pledge not to text and drive, and then to share their pledge with others via Twitter (#ItCanWait) and Facebook.

Currently 39 states have a law banning texting while driving; Texas is not one of them. Knowing that people who text while driving are unwilling to stop this dangerous practice, drivers are cautioned to utilize the basic premise of defensive driving…to watch out for the other guy.