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WATCH: Teens admit to texting while driving

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What are your reasons for using a phone while driving?

In a video interview by It Can Wait, the movement that has so far seen 19 980 567 pledges vow to drive safely and never distracted, a group of teens from the reality series Summer Break were asked the question, “What are your reasons for using a phone while driving?”

They casually responded:

“Instagram, Twitter, Facebook…”

“I do Snapchat and drive sometimes.”

“The passenger has a pretty important role of driving now. They’re like oh, red light, red light.”

“If someone that you like texts you, you can’t just like let it sit there without just knowing what they said.”

But when they met Jacey Good, who lost both her parents in a car accident because a driver had his eyes on his phone instead of the road, they could barely look her in the eyes, let alone answer that same question. Watch:

Jacey was in the car with her parents, on her way home from her college graduation ceremony, when she collided with a texting driver. And after she lost her parents, she spent 2 months in hospital fighting for her life and another 2 months in a rehab hospital to learn how to walk, dress, and feed herself again. She even had to relearn how to speak again and will be partially paralysed for the rest of her life.

“I can assure you on my drive home right now, I’m not going to use my phone and drive. And I’m not going to do it when I go to work tomorrow and the next day after that until, you know, it becomes a habit that just doesn’t happen, at all,” responded one cast member, after hearing Jacey’s story.

It's been reported that the chances of an accident increase by 23% when a driver texts and drives as they are distracted for an average of 4.6 seconds at a time should they feel the need to check a text on their phone or update their social media accounts.

Texting is dangerous because your visual, manual and cognitive abilities needed to focus on the road are impaired or rather, redirected to your mobile phone.

Thus, despite the fact that lawfully no person is allowed to be holding a mobile phone while driving, in South Africa a total of 25% of road accidents are caused by texting while driving.

But as the movement explains, you are never alone on the road, so you’re not only putting your life at risk when you text and drive, but risking the lives of so many others.

So again, what are your reasons for using a phone while driving?

It’s a trick question.

There really aren't any good reasons.

Read more:

Do you practise safe texting? Were you aware of how dangerous it can actually be to text and drive? Tell us by emailing to chatback@parent24.com and we may publish your comments.

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