Texting, drinking increase teens' chances of car wrecks

We are concerned with the health and safety of our peers because:

During a recent Healthy Youth Survey of Moses Lake High School students, most students reported being a passenger in a car when the driver had used their cellphone. Teen drivers increase their risk of crashing 700 percent by simply reaching for a phone, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Washington Traffic Safety Commission found that texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-texting driver.

Texting drivers look down for 5 seconds at a time on average – enough time to cover more than a football field.

One study shows that cellphone drivers are as impaired as drunk drivers who have a .08 percent blood-alcohol level.

Moses Lake High School’s Youth Action Team cares. Please remind friends and family to park their phones while driving and focus on the road.

On behalf of the Moses Lake Youth Action Team,

Justine Starkweather, Youth Action Team president