Texting while driving is a serious problem. 1 out of every 4 car accidents are caused by texting while driving. In the United States there are about 1.6 million preventable car crashes every year due to texting while driving. Even knowing this information people still text and drive. 

For teenagers, texting while driving is now the leading cause of death among teens. 

This means that texting while driving has swiftly  passed the deaths that are caused by drunk driving. So this leads to my question.. Why aren’t the consequences the same for both texting while driving and drunk driving?  In Connecticut when you are pulled over for texting while driving you get fined $150-200. On the other hand when getting pulled over while drunk driving, you can get fined up to $1000 dollars or even spend some time in jail. So many innocent people have lost their lives due to reckless drivers. On the CBS News Website, here is an important quote. “The reality is kids aren’t drinking seven days per week — they are carrying their phones and texting seven days per week, so you intuitively know this a more common occurrence,” Dr. Andrew Adesman, Chief Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Cohen Children’s Medical Center told Gusoff. This shows that texting while driving is vital and it needs to be addressed. A second quote on the CBS News Website is “Every single day I see it,” one driver said. “People driving along, texting, talking on their phone. They’re not supposed to do it, but they do it — kids, grown-ups, everybody does it. 

 it’s so easy to pick up your phone anytime. In teens,  it’s alarming how common it is  to text while driving. Same for teenagers who drink and drive. Both are equally as important. When you get pulled over for drunk driving you could go to jail for 5 days or depending on what you did while drunk you could only be fined.. Now, texting while driving on the other hand is different. You get fined but nothing more. Drunk driving and texting while driving should have the same consequences. CT should change these laws to be the same. Both drunk driving and texting while driving should be treated the same. Both cause severe damage. In a healthy, young teenagers mind when they pick up their phone in the car they are not thinking about the possibility that they could get into a  horrifying accident, or go to jail. If we change these laws, teenagers and adults would think twice about texting while driving.