Kamy Mayott has been told that texting while driving is dangerous. But the 15-year-old didn’t know just how dangerous until she navigated a golf cart through an obstacle course while texting and took out a whole row of orange cones.
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It definitely taught me to be careful and not to text while driving because I’m going to kill somebody, Mayott said.
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So far 25 states have banned texting while driving, but many are going a step further, sending kids through similar courses, so they can see the errors, accidents and fatalities they could cause. Officials hope the reality will alleviate the temptation to send an electronic message to a friend while behind the wheel.
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It’s pretty eye opening for the kids, said David Teater, senior director of transportation initiatives for the National Safety Council in Itasca, Ill. They’re very unsuccessful at texting and navigating the cones.
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The NSC estimates that 28 percent of crashes — or 1.6 million per year — are caused by cell phone use, either talking or texting.
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Drivers who use cell phones are four times more likely to be in a crash, while drivers who text increase that risk to 8 to 23 times, the NRC said.
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People shouldn’t be messing with cell phones when they’re trying to drive, said Drew Bloom, captain of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicle enforcement, who brought the obstacle course idea to Vermont after hearing about it in North Carolina. We’re finding a 400 percent average increase in driving errors. … So when you have a 400 percent increase in amount of mistakes you’re making and your reaction time slows dramatically, the proof is in data.
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The teens drive through the course once, and then a second time while texting to a friend on the side lines. It gives them hands-on experience that authorities hope will sink…