Texting while driving is unsafe; this is something that pretty much all drivers know at this point. This is confirmed in a recent survey in which 98 percent of respondents acknowledged that texting while driving is a dangerous activity.

Unfortunately, thus far, such major proliferation of awareness of the dangers of texting while driving has not led to the major changes in driver behavior that one might have hoped for. This too was illustrated in the above-mentioned survey, for in it, nearly three-fourths of the respondents admitted to texting when behind the wheel.

Why are so many drivers engaging in a behavior that they know to be dangerous? Among some of the reasons that people gave in the survey for why they text and drive were: that they are afraid of missing important messages, that they feel compelled to stay in connection with others and that texting while driving simply has become a habit for them. Also, one of the researchers involved in the survey has pointed out that one thing that could possibly be a factor in all this is that people can get rushes (through dopamine increases) when they text message.

The survey results raise a question of great importance: how do we get drivers to get beyond just being aware of the dangers of texting while driving to changing their behavior to make the roads a safer place? What do you think is key to getting people to stop texting and driving?

Whatever their reasons or justifications, when a person engages in texting while driving, their conduct has the potential to severely hurt innocent people. When a texting-while-driving accident occurs, innocent victims may be able to hold the texting driver accountable through legal action.