BY: ALYISSA MILLER 

GJHS Reporter 

              The text or call you may receive while driving is nowhere near as important as the life of loved ones, or your very own. It can wait. There are more than 200,000 vehicle crashes associated with distracted driving and over 2.35 million are injured from road crashes each year just in the US. Who knew a little device such as the phone near you could be as destructive as it is today?
             A most recent study by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) shows that texting drivers are far more in danger than intoxicated drivers. This is astonishing. To prove it, young drivers have been recruited to perform a stimulation test to see just how a person can be affected by reading or typing a simple word compared to drunk drivers and even drivers who are intoxicated by a drug such as an intoxicating plant. This test was effective in displaying that those who were shown to read or type a text have a slower reaction by 35% while as drunk drivers displayed only 12% of  a slower reaction time. Drivers who were under the influence of an alternative intoxication, such as marijuana, showed a 21%  delay--higher than drinking and driving, but still lower than texting while driving.
              It can wait. The crashes, deaths, grief; can all wait. Do not put yourself in danger. Do not put others in danger. Take the “It Can Wait” pledge, and you and 7 other million people can help make a change today. By clicking this link here–itcanwait.com, you can take the pledge to make the world a more safer place—also sponsored by AT&T.