Student Submission

The following was sent by Salmon River Middle School teacher Lindsay LaSala. Her sixth grade students worked on persuasive letters. Students chose a topic that was important to them and through writing and a poster, hoped to persuade readers to help make a difference.

Next week - Stop thinking the earth is a huge trash can!

Dear Editor,

Texting while driving kills tons of people every day. I found the following facts and information on a website called stopthetextsstopthewrecks.org. What I didn’t research is that families, friends, and parents are affected by texting while driving because parents do it and kids get the idea it is alright and that no one will see them or nobody will care. But really, everyone cares. My solution to this is, if everyone else could research about how many people are killed or injured everyday from texting while driving. Texting while driving sometimes happens when friends are in the car and people will probably say things like, “Oh, that’s so cool, how do you do it?” They will say this because it’s “cool” to text.

I choose this to write about because I think it’s important to know about how many people are hurt or killed by texting while driving. It is also taking a chance with your life and is one of the most dangerous things in your life. Hand the phone to someone else in the passenger’s seat or in the car.

I researched that texting drivers are 23% more likely to cause an accident then a non-texting driver. Also more than 20% of injuries are caused by texting while driving. Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55 mph, that’s enough, time to cover a football field. In that time I believe you or another driver can cause an accident.

Drivers who are texting while they drive or who use handheld devices are four times as likely to get into an accident, serious enough to injure yourself or someone else in the car with you.

I bet no one knew it but 49% of drivers with a cell phone under the age of 35, text while driving and it is seriously dangerous for your life and other people’s lives. If we had more laws about this, maybe people would realize that it is very dangerous and could ruin someone’s life, or your own.

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

Avery Benedict-Swamp