Texting While Driving Dangerous To Your Heath
Texting your friends and family on a cell phone in the middle of driving is unsafe, the American Medical Association reported on Monday, and backed up state legislation to forbid it.
“Texting while driving takes the driver’s attention away from the road, which can lead to accidents,” said Dr. Peter Carmel, an AMA representative.
The group, which is comprised of 240,000 U.S. physicians, decided to throw its weight behind laws that would make it simpler for police to stop drivers who are doing it.
“A recent study found that text messaging while driving causes a 400 percent increase in time spent with eyes off the road. No one should have to worry that other drivers are focused on texting instead of traffic. This is about keeping people safe on our roads,” Carmel added.
The AMA conference in Orlando, Florida, announced that seven states and Washington, D.C. have laws against allowing people to text message while driving.
Research has indicated that talking on cell phones can also divert drivers and can cause additional road dangers, even with hands-free options, and the AMA backs laws against doing that as well.
The engineer commanding a California train that had a huge accident in September, killing 12 people and hurting 135 in the most horrible U.S. train accident in 15 years, was text-messaging, federal investigators noted.
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