‘Intexticated’ Drivers Are A Serious Danger

Not many people approve of drink driving, even those who have driven after having one too many get annoyed when they see someone else doing it.

Some people get downright outraged at people who get drunk and get behind the wheel without a care for themselves or other people.

Kids who smoke grass or pop pills and then drive are seen as anti-social deviants who deserve to be locked away.

A new study shows that we may be targeting our anger in the wrong direction.

Many people are very adept and can send a text with great ease, tapping out the message with grt skill nd sped wthout rely lokin at th keybd.

However, the Transport Research Laboratory has discovered that this practice is not only a mindless addiction to often totally un-necessary texts; as well as being not very smart, it can be outright dangerous.

Stupid drunk drivers react on average 12% slower than sober people, while grass is even worse, causing reaction times to slow to 21% less, which is a huge difference and could easily lead to accidents.

Turning to the text, researchers found that drivers’ reactions slowed by 35%, just under three times as bad as for drink drivers.

Lack of lane discipline is another big problem with intexticated drivers. Just how bad? The research shows that control of steering drops by over 90% in drivers while texting, compared to drivers who hadn’t touched a mobile since getting in the car.

All these activities are illegal, drink driving, driving while stoned, and using a mobile while driving.

The survey from the RAC discovered that younger drivers aged below 25 were very prone to texting while driving, with more than 50% admitting to the habit.

That is several million motorists and yet less than 150,000 were prosecuted for the offence during 2007.

In a regular environment a text takes around 20 second to write, behind the wheel that jumps to just over a minute, almost three times as long.

If you think that’s not very long, a vehicle on an open road travels at over a mile a minute, that’s a mile a text.

A £60 fine and three points may be worth the risk to many salesmen flying up the M6, but new laws now mean that a death caused when using a phone will result in a prison sentence of up to five years.