by Shaj Mathew

Sam Howards, a Huntingtown senior, casually opens the door to her maroon Mercedes SUV on a dreary March afternoon. She puts the key in ignition, shifts into drive, looks out for traffic – and then whips out her neon blue LG Xenon cell phone.

Her slim fingers race along a full QWERTY keypad, which she places at bottom of her steering wheel as she begins to drive.  She furiously taps a text on the sleek silver pad, only looking down to read her completed message. Howards’ eyes dart around Route 4 traffic, but the road is not where her thoughts lie at the moment. Right now she’s thinking – er, texting – her friend about her prom dress.

Howards arrives home just fine, having messaged two of her friends in the process. But many officials fear that the next time, teens like her won’t just BRB – they’ll be RIP. And that’s nothing to LOL about.

She isn’t alone. Over 80% of teens use cell phones while driving, according to a 2009 Allstate Foundation study, which also notes that nearly one in two teens consider texting very or extremely distracting – an increase from one in three in 2005.

 The same study asserts that 1.6 million teens either read or write text messages while driving.

It’s not just texting. Talking on a cell phone, according to a University of Utah study, reduces the teen driver’s reaction ability to that of a senior citizen.  The Journal for Human Factors even compares texting teens to drunk drivers, stating that a teen typing away on his phone steers as if his blood alcohol level is 0.08%.

A 2009 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study makes the case against texting even more damning. Its data suggest that driver inattention during the three seconds before a crash – the amount of time even the most prolific texters require to type or look over a message – causes some 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes.

Perhaps Howards might consider putting down her phone now?

 At Huntingtown, no official poll on student texting and driving habits has been conducted.  Mr. Irvin, the school’s safety advocate, is probably the closest thing to an authority on the matter: every morning he greets hundreds of student drivers with his familiar wave and wry grin as they pull into the school.  He says that many students text and drive as they enter the school, though a higher proportion are making calls. Sometimes, he reports, the driver dictates a text message for the passenger to send. In any case, he says that cell phones are a major “distraction” for drivers.

Texting and driving is risky – and teens know it

Teens – even the most unabashed about their texting and driving habits – understand the risks involved.  “Texting and driving is dangerous,” Howards concedes. “I know I shouldn’t do it.” Howards does not text message and drive when her sister is in the car, who pesters her about her texting habits.

She speaks with candor as to why she continues: “Texting and driving personally hasn’t affected me.” The seventeen-year-old said she might be more inclined to stop if a serious texting-related accident occurred locally or to someone she knew.

This apparent paradox – grasping the potentially fatal risks of texting and driving, yet proceeding to do it anyway – is not limited to Howards.  Teens polled by the Allstate Foundation report that texting is the number one driving distraction; that said, over 80% use cell phones while driving.

Texting and driving habits vary student to student. Some only text at stop signs. Others hold their phones atop the steering wheel, believing it to be safer, while people like Howards position the phone at the bottom of the wheel. Texting without looking is popular, but staring down at the cell phone screen for up to five seconds isn’t uncommon either.

Tyler Brechbiel, a Huntingtown junior, is a rarity – he refuses to text while driving. “There are so many things you have to pay attention to if you want to be a safe driver,” says Brechbiel. “You don’t need a cell phone to make it harder.”

So why do other students continue? The answer may also lie in the culture in which these teens have grown up, one that fosters constant communication with peers always connected via the Internet and cell phones.  Howards admits that sometimes she feels compelled to respond almost instantly to friends’ texts, lest they get angry because she did not respond.  Other students cite boredom and convenience – “my phone’s just sitting in the cup holder.”

 The Law

Aware of it or not, teens like Howards are breaking the law.  In Maryland, it is illegal for all drivers under age eighteen to use a cell phone while operating a vehicle. Last year, the state senate voted to pass a bill that barred sending a text message while driving as well. Violators face fines up to $500.

Technically, the current Maryland law permits drivers over eighteen to read text messages in transit, though the state is apparently mulling a new law to ban reading messages too. Twenty states, as well as the District of Columbia and Guam, have enacted bans on texting and driving. The Governors Highway Safety Association, according to the Wall Street Journal, predicts that this year will see twenty more states pass texting bans, potentially spurred by financial incentives proposed by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Such bans would seem to be common sense, especially in light of the spate of texting-related deaths in recent years. In 2007, five teens in Canandaigua, N.Y. died after the texting driver collided with a truck head-on.  A Los Angeles commuter train driver in 2008 sent a text message just one second before ramming into freight train.  Twenty-five people died in the crash.

Getting the Message Out

The charge against prolific teen texters has taken to the Internet through new ventures.

Keep the Drive (keepthedrive.com), established by the insurance company Allstate, aims to halt the growing number of students that text message while driving through videos, facts, and contests for teens.  The website includes tips for teen drivers on how to minimize distraction and spread the word about the perils of texting while driving.  AT&T has also launched a new program called “Txtng & Drivng … It Can Wait,” whose video and print ads convey a simple message that is often lost on teens glued to their phones: no text is worth dying for.

Verizon Wireless’ anti-texting ad campaign echoes the same message. In one video, workers take town a Verizon billboard and replace it with a much plainer one. It is not as colorful or boastful (the “America’s #1 Network” trademark has conspicuously vanished), but the message is not supposed to be ornamental or self-aggrandizing – it’s supposed to be direct, it’s supposed to be arresting.  “Please don’t text and drive” it reads in bold red font, as the video’s female voiceover reminds viewers, “honestly, no message is that important.”

That is, except the message to teens: stop texting behind the wheel – just drive.

Note: Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of students.