By Kayla Bear Intern
Texting while driving is an issue that has been given a substantial amount of attention from the media as well as concerned parents; however, are teenagers actually heeding the warnings?
Or are they too busy texting their friends to even listen?
A video produced by a police department in the UK shows the possible effects of texting while driving. It has accumulated more than 180,000 views on YouTube, but is the message actually being delivered, or are kids just letting it go in one ear and out the other?

Young drivers may think “oh, this road isn’t busy at all, I’ll be fine”, “I’m just going to send this short text real quick”, or the ever-popular “my parents don’t know what they’re talking about”. Drivers with this mindset were involved in almost 6,000 deaths and 500,000 injuries in 2008, according to theglobeandmail.com.
Media is stirring up the possibility that texting while driving may be more dangerous than drunk driving.
“Car and Driver” magazine recently held a study comparing the two and the results were astonishing.
Vehiclevibe.com’s Kathy says, “In their study … reading a text message caused the driver’s reaction time to more than double when compared to drunk driving and more than triple when compared to driving without distractions.”
Jennifer Guevin, a CNET editor, presents some facts about the dangers of texting while behind the wheel, in hopes to reach out to some seemingly ignorant drivers.
“Texting took a driver’s focus away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds — ­enough time ... to travel the length of a football field at 55 miles per hour,” says Guevin.
This is a statistic that could frighten any driver. In 4.6 seconds, many things could happen. A driver could swerve, a stop sign could be overlooked, a child could run in front of a car. If one is reading or typing a text, how will he see the child, the stop sign, the car that swerved? The answer is that he won’t. Or if he does, it may very well be too late.
If you would like to view the video mentioned in this article, visit www.youtube.comand type “texting while driving PSA from The Today Show” in your search query.