Sending or reading text messages while driving is one of the most dangerous types of distracted driving, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA estimates that the average text takes the driver’s eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds – long enough for a vehicle going 55 miles per hour to cover an entire football field. Texting also distracts the brain and the hands from the important task of safe driving.
Texting and driving accidents have left thousands of people bearing intense personal costs. In a documentary produced by AT&T entitled “The Last Text,” four people whose lives have been permanently changed by a texting-related accident share their stories. They include family and friends left behind when a distracted driving accident claimed a loved one’s life, a man struggling with basic daily activities after a texting accident left him with a severe traumatic brain injury, and a college student whose texting caused the death of a bicyclist.
Each story underlines the significant costs just one text message can impose. The four seconds a driver’s eyes are off the road when texting are the four seconds that can literally mean the difference between life and death for the driver, a passenger, or another person.
You can watch the entire documentary online here, but be warned, the content may be disturbing to some viewers:
