Cassie is on her way to work on a normal Tuesday afternoon. As she’s driving, her phone starts playing Justin Bieber’s “Somebody to Love.” She looks at it and across her screen it says, “one new text message.”.She looks up at her windshield again, and sees no cars coming. Since she’s on a straight street, she looks down again, reads her text message, and starts to reply. All of a sudden, she hears a car honk and quickly looks up, finding herself in the middle of the road almost hitting the car on the other side. She quickly puts her phone on her passenger seat, and doesn’t look at it again until she gets to work.

This type of situation happens a lot to drivers. More and more car accidents are occuring and researchers have started to study why. In addition to the numerous drinking-and-driving accidents that occur, one of the top reasons for so many accidents is texting and driving.

Cell phones have become an essential part of most teenage and adult lives. A lot of people say they can’t live without their phones, and if they didn’t have their phone they’d be absolutely lost. That’s understandable considering cell phones are used for many different reasons, from asking classmates what the math homework was to using it as an alarm to wake up every morning.

But unfortunately, many people use the phone when they shouldn’t, including the very dangerous practice of texting while driving.

Teenagers are allowed to get their driver’s license at 16 and a half years old. The moment their temporary driver’s license is handed to them, all they want to do is drive. At the same time though, they want to text their friends saying that they got their license. They might even put up a quick status on Facebook about it and tweet it so Kim Kardashian and Wiz Khalifa can see. They try to text while driving for the first time, and nothing happens. So they keep doing it and it seems to get easier, until they’re at the wrong place at the wrong time and something happens because their eyes are on their cell phone rather than on the roads.

Studies have shown that texting while driving impairs the driver’s driving abilities. Their reaction time is slower than usual and their eyes are off the road, which is never good.Yet, a lot of teenagers, as well as adults, still text while driving. Researchers have seen though, that it’s more common among teenagers than adults.

When asked about texting and driving, junior Mike Lavell said, “Yeah, I text and drive, but I think it’s dangerous because your eyes are off the road.”

When asked if he thinks texting and driving is dangerous, senior Greg Cormier said, “I do but I still do it. I feel like it makes me more alert on the roads though.”

According to researchers, that’s actually not what happens. Texting and driving has the opposite affect on people. A lot of people are aware of the dangers of texting and driving, yet they still do it on a daily basis. Police have made it a law not to text and drive, but many people break that law.

So before you pick up your phone, think about what could happen and the consequences of texting and driving.