Jul 28

Written by: Mike Martinez
7/28/2009 9:46 AM

THIS JUST IN!: It's an urgent breaking news flash, friends ... Texting while you drive is not safe. Yes, we now have "the first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles" to show us that texting and driving is bad.

The $6 million-dollar study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute was conducted by outfitting the cabs of 18 wheelers with video cameras over the course of a month and half. what they found is that when drivers texted, their risk of getting in an accident was 23 times greater than when not texting. They also found that in the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices. At 65 mph, that's enough time to cover more than the length of a football field! The director for the Institute that conducted the study says this not only proves you should never text while driving, "It should be illegal.”

Umm. Question. Why do we need somebody to pass a law to tell us it's a bad idea to take your eyes and mind off the road while operating the equivalent of a 2000 pound bullet?

And why do we have to spend $6 million on a study to find all this out? Shouldn't it just be common sense? What can be so important that it's worth your or my life?

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