Texting and/or using a smartphone while driving has become one of the biggest road hazards today. It’s the drunk driving of the 2010s. Did you know that nearly 40% of highway accidents in the US are caused by drivers with a phone in their hand? That number is even higher than those who drink and drive.
Thankfully, 2010s technology can prevent such calamities. If you have an Apple or Android based mobile phone, in which the vast majority of Americans do, you can have Siri read text messages for you. Just ask Siri to read your messages. And she will. Siri will give you a chance to reply. You say the reply and the voice messenger will send that reply to your intended target. It doesn’t matter if it’s one or ten texts, just say, “read my texts” and they will be read. Android based phones have an app called ReadItToMe, which users can download for free. It may cost you a little time and effort. But I’d rather take a little time downloading these apps than let distracted driving get me in trouble with my insurance company, get me in trouble with the law, or something even far worse. Did you know texting and driving is illegal on some level in most US states?
So take advantage of Siri and ReadItToMe. Get these apps for your teen drivers. Teach them how to use them. Set good habits and lead by example. Did you know over a third of teenagers admitted to texting while driving in the last 30 days? Maybe that’s because over a fourth of adults admitted to distracted driving in the last 30 days. We’ve got to do better. I‘m thankful there are tools out there to help us do better. What other tools or tactics can we do to curb the epidemic of distracted driving?