Imagine walking on a crosswalk to the Family Dollar to get your sick mom a drink. In the corner of your right eye, you see a pick up truck coming full speed towards you without any headlights on. Boom! This, unfortunately, happened to my sixteen year old cousin PROPER_NAME on Thanksgiving Day. His life was cut short because someone was driving distracted by using their cell phone. Even though Georgia has a Hands

-Free Law, many people do not take that law seriously. Drivers should not be allowed at all to use their cell phone while driving .

"Sending or receiving a text message causes the driver's eyes to leave the road for an average of 4.6 seconds" ,according to "U.S State and Federal Laws Targeting Distracted Driving ". When driving 55 mph, this is the equivalent of driving the entire length of a football field blind. Driving while being distracted is just as easy as it is to reply to a friend about going out tonight. No one want to be in a hospital pronounced dead to your family. Teens do not realize how unsafe it is to answer their phone for a friend at that moment while driving. Many teens just do not see it at all that they put their lives in harm's way. They also affect other people.

The 2019 Texting and Driving Statistics state that 36% of respondents ages 18-24 admitted to texting while driving, and 51% said they were "very" or "extremely" familiar with their state's texting and driving laws. Of those surveyed 48% said they thought driving under the influence of alcohol was more dangerous than texting and driving.That is false information. Drinking and driving and texting are both toxic because they both distract the brain off their main focus. In fact, texting while driving is six times more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.

The Hands Free law should be more strict when it involves punishment. Instead of getting credits from their car insurance and paying a fine, they should actually get jail time so they can think twice about picking up their phone.Many people abuse the Hands Free Law. Therefore, drivers should not be able to use cell phones in any capacity while operating a vehicle.

In conclusion, teens are not the only ones who get distracted by use of their cell phones.Many adults are in this category as well.When an individual gets behind the wheel of a 3000 pound vehicle, he should think about how many lives can be affected. If one is really responsible, he will turn off the phone until he has reached his destination.   