St. Cloud Fire Rescue reminds residents to not text and drive

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St. Cloud Fire Rescue reminds residents to not text and drive

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Wednesday, 07 July 2010 00:00

St. Cloud Fire Rescue (SCFR) would like to help keep residents safe by reminding everyone to just say no to texting while driving – lives depend on it.
“The death toll rises every day from hand-held mobile telephone use and texting while driving,” Emergency Medical Services Lt. Lisa Thompson said.
“It seems to be a new, socially accepted way of life. But, many states are involved in implementing legislation to stop further deaths from occurring and help control the dangerous practice of using hand-held mobile telephones and texting while driving. However, we should all make an individual effort to always drive responsibly.”
According to statistics, on an average day, drivers will read or respond to text messages that take their eyes off of the roadway for approximately 4.6 seconds.
“Drivers can easily have to deal with distractions, severe weather conditions, roadway construction, impaired drivers, and driver error. Also consider this – teenagers today have a
50 percent more of a chance
of crashing while texting. And
a terrifying statistic: of 220,000,000 registered drivers in the United States, 26 percent (that’s 57 million people) admit to texting while driving regularly. And 26,000,000 of those drivers are age 16 to 24 and 60 percent in this age group admit to texting while driving,” Thompson said.
A driver’s reaction time to a potential disaster on the road is grossly compromised due to texting. This is why SCFR is encouraging all drivers to just say no to the use of hand-held mobile telephone and texting while driving – it will save lives. Remember these valuable tips while driving:
• Keep eyes on the road at all times
• Be aware of all surroundings
• Never use a hand-held mobile telephone; pull over and park in a safe location if you need to call or text someone before you arrive at your destination
• Do not attempt to do other things while driving, such as plugging in a power cord, reaching into the glove compartment, fumbling for a pen, changing the radio station, CD or MP3 player,or reading directions
• Let voice mail answer a call, even if it comes in while waiting at an intersection
For more details on the dangers of texting and driving, call 407-957-8486.
For information on Florida distracted-driving laws, visit www.drivinglaws.org
/florida.php.