Texting and Driving (By: Winston Chan)
Keeping your eyes on the road, and your awareness of your car’s surroundings is top priority, so put your phone aside while driving. BCAA states that 87% of drivers tend to text and drive or are distracted doing something else while driving. There are plenty of incidents that have happened before and are currently still happening on the road where people lose their lives or even kill someone due to texting and driving. Texting and driving is as dangerous as drunk driving. It may not seem bad to do, but it is. Texting while driving is also against the law in BC. You can be fined with a minimum of $167 and 3 penalty points. The question I ask myself is, is it worth losing your life or killing someone and being sentenced to jail over a simple “LOL”? Enough people get killed because a distracted driver was too busy sending a text that was not worth the consequences. I don’t think it is fair for the family of the victim that lost his/her life over a text message. People have families and kids to take care of and a home to come to. Everyone should be aware of this situation and should say NO to texting and driving. It’s scary to think about how much we risk our lives, on a normal day on our way to school, work, or going back home, knowing you can be killed by someone texting and driving. That is why I say NO ONE should be allowed to text while driving. People still do it and get away with it, but the law should be enforced and ticket fines should increase. I believe everyone knows how dangerous texting and driving can be not only because people get hurt but also because there are consequences. As a teen driver, your permit or license maybe taken away. The damage cost may not come out your pocket, but from your parents. I doubt your parents would want to let you borrow their car after you caused an accident while driving. Can you imagine not being able to drive for the rest of your life? Getting sentenced to jail for murder or manslaughter due to texting and driving, is it really worth it? British Columbia says that it is against the law to text and drive. Personally, I agree with our province because too many teens are getting killed because of drivers that are used to texting and driving, or maybe even kill themselves because of a text. Texting technology was not used as much in the early 2000s as it is today. Most teen’s text; everything today is sent through texts. People are always texting, on their way to school, when waiting for the bus, when they want to meet up with their friends and even when cheating in class. So next time you are getting ready to drive make sure your phone is not near you. This way you will not be tempted to pick up your phone or text back. Driving is a huge responsibility and you would not want to lose that privilege! You would not want to be the one in hand cuffs telling the victim’s family members that they lost their life due to a text message.