How to stop the texting habit while driving

Tampa car accident lawyers may have been among the first to recognize the growing menace of drivers distracted from the road because they were texting. Increasingly, injury attorneys would hear from severely injured clients that they saw in their rear view mirror the at fault driver looking at something in their hand before impact. And now texting while driving has reached the point of becoming an epidemic, according to Raymond LaHood, the US Secretary of Transportation. Distracted drivers, people texting, talking on the phone, or messing around with their GPS, killed 5883 people in 2008 and injured an additional 515,000. Texting alone was a factor in more than 200,000 crashes in 2008.
Although over the last several years the public has been made increasingly aware of the dangers of texting while driving, that awareness has not yet reversed the texting trend. As a result, any Tampa injury law firm attorney can continue to share with you that texting while driving continues to drive business to their offices.

Why is it that despite the obvious dangers of texting that the number of people who continue to text grows? Part of the reason is that we assume that nothing will ever happen to us. Even though we intuitively know that a combination of driving in texting is unsafe. If you do it once and nothing happens, your experience tells you that it's okay. Those repeated safe experiences builds up a sense of invulnerability.

Another reason has to do with the increasing number of “smart phones” that are being purchased by the public. Although just about everyone now has a personal communication device of some sort, only more recently have almost all such devices come equipped with the ability to receive both emails, internet and text messages. Also, phone companies have increasingly offered their customers an unlimited amount of these serves for one lump sum.

Besides increasing use of communication devices equipped to receive internet, emails and text messages, there's something more going on that Tampa car drivers should be aware of. Many of us just can't seem to resist the ring, blink and/or buzz of a new text message. It’s like the AOL message that announces:  “You’ve got mail.” Our minds get a boost when we realize that someone is trying to contact us. We’re curious and eager to find out what the message is about. Perhaps it’s relatively important, funny and certainly it’s more interesting than paying attention to the road.

Somehow, despite the obvious dangers of getting involved in a car accident Tampa, we feel compelled to find out what the message is about. According to communication experts, this compulsion is particularly strong in teens who have find it very difficult to avoid incoming messages because they have a strong desire to in frequent contact with their friends. Tampa car accident lawyers may even be able to tell you stories of teens who testify during trial depositions that the riskiness of texting while driving seems to them exciting rather than scary. What makes teen texting particularly worrisome is that teens are already more susceptible to causing accidents on Tampa roads. As Injury law firms know from experience, teens often cause car accidents with sometimes very serious injuries because of their relative inexperience behind the wheel of a car. Add to that the distraction of looking at incoming text messages and the problem is only made much worse.

To make matters worse, both teens and adults often feel a need to respond to text messages. They may feel that not responding after reading the text would be rude despite the dangers of getting into a Tampa car accident with serious injuries. And so these drivers will actual do their best to watch the road out of the corner of their eye while typing a message out on their keypad. They’ll do this even while the voice of common sense says to them that waiting until the car is parked to respond to a text message is a much better, safer and more sensible thing to do. Intuitively , these distracted drivers know that responding to the message regardless of how important they think it is at the time isn’t worth the loss of their lives. But yet the forces of their mind all too often overcomes their otherwise good sense.

So what can be done to overcome natural inclination of drivers to want to receive text messages and immediately respond despite the known dangers? Tampa car accident lawyers believe that raising awareness of the dangers while increasing the penalties could have a positive effect. The Department of Transportation, concerned about this alarming trend in driving, has created a website called distraction.gov. On the website, the public can view various public service announcements on the subject. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey are also helping to get the word out. Oprah has created a “No phone zone" campaign in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents resulting from distracted drivers.

Currently, texting while driving is illegal in 25 states. The fine for getting caught texting while driving is often rather small, about $100. Given the discussion above about the powerful forces that compel drivers to text while they’re driving, that amount doesn’t appear to be sufficient to get drivers to change their ingrained habits. Some states have gone further. Wisconsin, for example, adds a significant number of points to the offender's record, which could lead to the driver’s license being suspended. In Utah, drivers that are caught texting can face up to three months in jail and a fine of up to $750. If they hurt somebody while texting in Utah, they'd be looking at the potential for 15 years in prison. The federal government is also getting involved in trying to stop texting. It is considering reducing the amount of money they provide state governments for road construction unless they enact more strict texting penalties and fines.

But in Florida, such fines for texting do not yet exist. Therefore, Floridians will have to find other ways to reduce the texting habit if there is going to be hope that the trend of increasing Tampa auto accidents as a result of texting will reverse. One way to do that is through the use of technology that started this problem to begin with. For example, there are new smart phone applications such as Cell Safety, iZUP and ZoomSafer which use the handsets built in GPS to sense whether the car is in motion. And if so, the handset will automatically block the ability to send and receive texts.

Another method that might be tried is to train yourself to not want to pick up your cell phone. It's a matter of teaching yourself to have a negative emotional association with cell phone use while you're driving. It takes some practice, but you might try this. When your phone rings or beeps with a new text message, visualize what could happen if your attention is distracted. Actually picture yourself getting involved in a Tampa auto accident with graphic and catastrophic injuries. Think about the effect that that car accident will have on you, your friends, and your family. Over time, start associating the rain or buzz from your cell phone with a crash. Hopefully that'll have you become over time, less inclined to answer it.

Tampa car accident lawyers sometimes suggest a method for breaking the texting habit that may sound a bit old fashioned. It doesn't rely upon new technology, but it does require the driver to be seriously committed to not driving while distracted. Injury law firms recommend that the driver put the phone in the glove compartment or trunk of the car before turning on the ignition. This prevents gaining access to the phone while the driver is driving. Like any habit, drivers willing to commit to this for a period of 30 days or more will likely find that this texting habit is one that can be stopped and is worth breaking. And if you’re the passenger in a vehicle, injury law firms in both Tampa and St. Petersburg will suggest that you take the phone away from a driver that is about to send or receive a text and tell them that “friends don’t let friends text and drive.”