Texting While Driving? Think Again

• In 2010, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driver distraction was the cause of 18 percent of all fatal crashes – with 3,092 people killed – and crashes resulting in an injury – with 416,000 people wounded.

• In Georgia, it’s against the law to text and drive.

• Been in a car in which the driver was texting or talking on the phone? Forty percent of American teenagers say they have, according to a Pew survey.

• Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times greater than driving while not texting and being distracted, says the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

• Eleven percent of drivers aged 18 to 20 who survived an car wreck admitted they were sending or receiving texts when they crashed.

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