11 facts that'll make you second guess texting and driving - HONK (2024)

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11 facts that'll make you second guess texting and driving - HONK? ›

Texting makes a crash up to 23 times more likely. Teens who text while driving spend 10% of the time outside their lane. According to AT&T's Teen Driver Survey, 97% of teens agree that texting while driving is dangerous, yet 43% do it anyway. 19% of drivers of all ages admit to surfing the web while driving.

Texting makes a crash up to 23 times more likely. Teens who text while driving spend 10% of the time outside their lane. According to AT&T's Teen Driver Survey, 97% of teens agree that texting while driving is dangerous, yet 43% do it anyway. 19% of drivers of all ages admit to surfing the web while driving.

80% of car accidents are caused by a driver being distracted. 2% of distracted driving accidents are the result of eating or drinking. Your attention span to the road decreases by 40% when you listen to music or podcasts in the car. 20% of drivers admit to doing their hair while driving.

Visual: taking your eyes off of the road is a visual distraction. Manual: any time your hand or hands are off of the steering wheel. Cognitive: Your mind is focused on something other than driving. The effects of this impacts reaction time to changing surroundings.

Drivers who text while driving are 23 times more likely to be involved in a car accident. In the 5 seconds that you spend reading or writing a text message, you're leaving yourself wide open to an accident.

Older teens are more likely than younger teens to have cell phones and use text messaging; 82% of teens ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% text. Overall, 34% of teen texters ages 16-17 say they have texted while driving. That translates into 26% of all American teens ages 16-17.

98% of text messages are read in minutes. 75% of consumers like receiving messages from brands (after they've opted in). 20% of customers said they made a purchase after receiving a text from a small business. 87% of businesses rate SMS marketing as important to their future marketing strategy.

Distracted driving is any activity that diverts attention from driving, including talking or texting on your phone, eating and drinking, talking to people in your vehicle, fiddling with the stereo, entertainment or navigation system — anything that takes your attention away from the task of safe driving.

16.2% of drivers in 2021 have texted while driving, a 2.2% decrease from drivers in 2020.

These are visual, which is taking eyes off the road, manual, which is taking one or both hands off the wheel, and cognitive, when the drivers' attention is taken away from driving.

Is texting and driving OK? ›

In California, you cannot use a cell phone or similar electronic communication device while holding it in your hand. You can only use it in a hands-free manner, such as speaker phone or voice commands, but never while holding it. Any driver under the age of 18 is prohibited from using a cell phone for any reason.

You're Taking Your Eyes Off the Road

Of all the activities associated with distracted driving, sending text messages is the most dangerous. A person is 23 times more likely to have a motor vehicle crash while sending a text message than if they were only driving.

How many people die from texting and driving? Hundreds of Americans are killed annually in accidents involving texting and driving: In 2021, 410 people in total were killed as a direct result of accidents caused by texting and driving. That amounts to more than one death per day.

Most people believe that talking instead of texting or shifting to a hands-free device is enough to mitigate the risks. However, this simply is not the case. The shocking truth is that talking while driving is just as dangerous as texting; and no, using a hands-free device does not lower the risk.

Research has found that dialing a phone number while driving increases your teen's risk of crashing by six times, and texting while driving increases the risk by 23 times.

Texting is the most alarming distraction. Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that's like driving the length of an entire football field with your eyes closed. You cannot drive safely unless the task of driving has your full attention.

Cell phone use while driving statistics and texting and driving facts show that this behavior is common and dangerous for teen drivers. Distracted driving is very dangerous. In 2021, 3,522 people died in distraction-related crashes, up 12% from the year before and accounting for 8.2% of all road deaths.

You'll spend an average of 10 percent of your time out of your lane. When you look down to send or read a text while driving, you take your eyes off the road for an average of almost five seconds. Doesn't seem long - but a person driving at 55 MPH travels the length of a football field in five seconds.

Texting and driving deaths per year

About 400 fatal crashes happen each year as a direct result of texting and driving. That number increases to over 30,000 when you consider distracted driving as a whole, according to the NHTSA.