Don't Text and Drive

Driving to and from our dealership I noticed a scary trend. Almost everyone I saw was texting and driving. Have you noticed how many people are texting while driving? Houston this is dangerous! Here are some facts on the dangers of texting and driving via http://www.drivenowtextlater.org/the-facts/  

• You are 23 times more likely to be involved in a traffic accident if you text and drive. (Virginia Tech Transportation Institute)
• Over 25% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 report that they text “regularly” while driving. (Center For Disease Control)
• About 9% of all drivers on the road report that they use their cell phones to text “fairly often” while driving. (CDC)
• 5,474 people died in the U.S. in 2009 due to motor vehicle crashes that were caused by distracted driving. (Fatal Accident Reporting System)
• 448,000 people were injured in the U.S. in 2009 because of traffic accidents that were caused by distracted driving. (FARS)
• When using a cell phone while driving, the brain activity associated with driving is lessened by 37%. (Carnegie Mellon)
• The average time for sending or reading a text message is 4.6 seconds. A car traveling 55 miles-per-hour will travel the length of a football field in this amount of time. (VTTI)
• 40% of teens in the U.S. report that they have been in a vehicle while the driver was using a cell phone in a way that put passengers in danger. (Pew)
• 16% of all fatal motor vehicle crashes reported in the U.S. in 2009 occurred due to distracted driving. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
• 20% of all motor vehicle crashes involving injury in the U.S. in 2009 occurred as a result of distracted driving. (NHTSA)

Texting and driving is dangerous and we need to stop taking it lightly. Think before you text Houston!