It’s a common problem. You are driving home from work and thinking about the long weekend ahead and the plans to get together with a group of friends. But you just remembered that you forgot to tell a certain friend where everyone is meeting up. Reaching for the phone, you begin a quick text message. No worries, you think. It’ll only take a few seconds for just a quick note. You glance down as the car continues along at 35 miles per hour.

Up ahead, a car hesitates in the intersection. Its elderly driver was going to make a left, but then decided to go right. The driver starts to turn and…blam! You never saw it coming, because you were focused on the text message, not the traffic ahead of you.

Each year, distracted driving causes a lot of road incidents. The United States Department of Transportation reports that more than 3,000 people die in motor vehicle accidents in which distracted driving was to blame. The DOT also notes that more than 400,000 people were injured as a result of distracted driving.

Texting, while not the total problem, shares a healthy portion of the blame for distracted driving accidents, which is why there are campaigns reminding us that “it can wait,” no matter how vital the message.

More Phones Than People

There are now more smartphones than Americans, which means there are more than 300 million phones on the market. That’s a lot of temptation to text, which means that the accident rate is likely to increase.

Driving is serious business. You are moving through space at speeds no human can duplicate on foot, with only a thin sheet of metal between you and devastating results. Yet driving is such a common, daily occurrence that we take its dangers for granted. After all, we’re sitting in a comfortable seat, there’s music playing, perhaps we have a drink resting in the console and we’re in command.