Last month, one of the worst railroad crashes in U.S history that killed 25 people is under speculation. It has been said that the conductor crashed the train because he was receiving and responding to text messages. According to msnbc.com’s article, "Americans still texting dangerously," people text during dangerous situations despite the risk. According to a survey released last Tuesday, 77% of American’s have texted while driving a moving vehicle.
Furthermore, the survey found that 41% of Americans have texted while skiing, horseback riding, and bicycle riding. If this isn’t Computer Mediated Communication taking over our lives, I don’t know what is. Surveys have also found that half of teenagers frequently text while they are driving.
In February of this year, NBC investigated the dangers of teenagers texting while driving. Ashley Freitas, from Waterbury, was tested by driving around cones with and without texting. Without texting, she did fine, but when she opened her phone, she completely missed one cone. To further the inspection, a police officer was tested and narrowly missed 2 cars and did not see a pedestrian.
There has been much talk about banning cell phone use in vehicles, but like every other law, it is going to be broken. I am guilty of texting while I am driving. I have never narrowly missed hitting something, or completely missed a stop sign, but who is to say that I won’t in the future. The texting aspect of CMC can be a fun thing to do during a non moving activity, but it is a seriously dangerous hobby while driving a train!
Furthermore, the survey found that 41% of Americans have texted while skiing, horseback riding, and bicycle riding. If this isn’t Computer Mediated Communication taking over our lives, I don’t know what is. Surveys have also found that half of teenagers frequently text while they are driving.
In February of this year, NBC investigated the dangers of teenagers texting while driving. Ashley Freitas, from Waterbury, was tested by driving around cones with and without texting. Without texting, she did fine, but when she opened her phone, she completely missed one cone. To further the inspection, a police officer was tested and narrowly missed 2 cars and did not see a pedestrian.
There has been much talk about banning cell phone use in vehicles, but like every other law, it is going to be broken. I am guilty of texting while I am driving. I have never narrowly missed hitting something, or completely missed a stop sign, but who is to say that I won’t in the future. The texting aspect of CMC can be a fun thing to do during a non moving activity, but it is a seriously dangerous hobby while driving a train!
2 comments:
Before reading your blog I knew that people texted while driving, but I never would have thought that people texted while skiing, horse back riding and bicycle riding. I do not understand how a text could be so important that you can not get off your bike and type the text. CMC through texting is definitely growing in popularity and will continue to be an issue with driving in the future. Even if a law is established to really crackdown on cell phone usage with steeper penalties, people will still continue to text.
Wow, I hope my airline pi;ot isnt texting during take off orlanding. Personally, I am guilty of texting and driving, but im not sure I could while skiing or riding a bike. I cane even fatom how thats possible. I don't know how that would even be regulated at a high rate, but i think it coems down to personal responsability. I know when I text while driving, it's usually at red lights, stop signs or when I
m not moving.
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