Traffic Safety Officials Demonstrate Dangers Of Distractions From Texting

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — To demonstrate how hard it is to text and perform a second task, the Office of Traffic Safety challenged college students to a text-and-shootoff.

The students had to answer questions through texts while they shot basketballs, which proved difficult for Steven Jones. He's familiar with the downfall of multitasking while texting.

"You send it and you're like ugh I shouldn't have said that. Or I sent it to the wrong person," he said.

And for many people, the fear of texting the wrong thing is greater than the fear of taking their eyes off the road, or in this case, the basketball hoop.

"Well I'm trying to text and play basketball and you can't do either one of them well enough. I haven't gotten a basket or sent a text yet," said Chris Cochran with the office of traffic safety.

Most teens will have a cellphone before a driver's license. Distracted driving is such a problem that driving instructors now recommend blocking devices that will stop the signal while behind the wheel.

But the office of traffic safety says it's not just about people texting one-handed.

"Science has shown us that it's not what your hands are doing, it's what your head is doing. Legislation just hasn't caught up," he said.

The good news is that distracted driving in California is on a steady decline since it peaked in 2012.