As more and more sophomores are gaining their licenses there are more inexperienced teenage drivers on the road.
According to itcanwait.com, a website encouraging teens to take a pledge to stop texting while driving, 75 percent of teens say texting and driving is common among their friends.
Senior Phoebe Presley agrees that she is part of the 75 percent that say it’s a normal thing.
“I feel like this generation is so addicted to their cell phones and can’t put them away while they are behind the wheel,” Presley said.
Although Presley has not been in a wreck caused by texting and driving, there is always a possibility it can happen if a person isn’t paying 100 percent attention to the road.
“Makayla (Phillips) and I were driving down 290 and we were going like 70 mph and I was texting,” Presley said. “There was a car that was slowing down to turn right in front of me and I didn’t see it. I was really close to the car and Makayla yelled ‘Phoebe’ and I had to slam on my brakes and swerve into the left lane to go around the car because I couldn’t stop in time. If Makayla wasn’t in the car I would of ended up destroying the car in front of me.”
Presley is aware of the dangers of texting and driving, which can range anywhere from a minor injury to death.
“If I almost get in a wreck while I’m texting, I’ll put it down for the rest of that ride but when I get in the car again I always seem to pick it back up,” Presley said. “I do that because I realize how dangerous it is.”
On the other end of the spectrum, junior Nicole Byrom is against texting and driving.
“I don’t want to swerve off the road and not be aware of what’s going on around me,” Byrom said.
She believes that people text and drive because they think they need to respond right away and think that nothing is going to happen to them. She encourages others to do the same as her and put the phone down while behind the wheel by telling them that they could hurt themselves and other people as well.
According to dosomething.org texting while driving increases the chances of crashing up to 23 times more likely.
There are some people, like senior Alex Bouren, that think that it’s okay to text while the car is stopped at a stoplight or in stop-and-go traffic.
This could lead to rear-end collisions if others notice the green light first.
“I usually look up pretty often to check on the light, but if I don’t notice, someone honks at me and then I put my phone down and drive,” Bouren said.
Many will argue that texting and driving at a stoplight isn’t dangerous because they aren’t actually going anywhere.
“I’m not moving,” Bouren said. “My foot is on the brake, and I don’t have to worry about rear ending someone.”
Officer Steve McClarty shared that the law in Austin, Texas says that a person can text as long as the person is not moving.
“Generally the only problem you’re going to have there is if the light turns green and you’re sitting there with your nose in that texting, and some guy comes up behind you at 50 mph and he’s expecting you to start rolling and you don’t,” McClarty said.
According to McClarty, texting and driving, although not safe, is very common.
“With modern technology, the modern miracle that it is, I’ve seen people texting going down the freeway going 80 mph looking down,” McClarty said. “I’ve seen them in the parking lot doing it. None of it is safe and students need to take care.”