If you text while driving a car you will most likely die a horrible death, or at the very least, end up a horrible disfigured burn victim shunned by society. In addition to this is that by doing it, you also risk the lives of pedestrians and others on the road at the same time. This may sound like hyperbolic exaggeration, but it is advice that nobody should wait to heed until after a closed-casket funeral.

Of above 3 billion cell phone subscribers on earth, over 2.4 billion individuals have used cell phones for text messaging, which makes it one of the most all-pervasive technologies on earth. With about a third as many automobiles on the road across the world, there is a very substantial overlap in users. However, they should never be used concurrently.

Essentially any use of text messaging, whether receiving and reading a text, or typing and sending one, constitutes distracted or even reckless driving, which is a ticketable offense in most states and can result in one’s license being suspended in extreme or recurring circumstances. It’s common sense really: the attention you commit to your phone while texting is removed from the road, increasing your risk of an accident. And yet, in spite of the obvious risks, surveys have indicated that almost 46% of teens have used cell phones while driving.

Studies and tests have indicated that driving while diverted by reading an email or text while driving adds roughly 36 feet to one’s stopping distance. The process of sending a text can add as many as 70 feet to one’s stopping distance at 70 miles per hour. Operating a cell phone can add as much as a full second to one’s reaction time while driving, which sounds tiny until you look at that at 70 miles per hour, one second of travel equals to over a hundred feet. In comparison, driving at just over the legal alcohol limit adds only a tenth as much time to one’s reaction, or in terms of distance: 4 feet.

In 2008, a passenger train collided head on with a freight train in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles when the passenger train ran a red stop light going into a single track section of the line that was currently occupied by the freight train, which the train’s dispatcher had given to the go ahead. The conductor of the passenger train had been distracted by text messaging when he ran the red light. 25 people were killed in the accident and another 135 injured, many of them critically. Though not specifically a car accident, the train collision nonetheless occurred for reasons that are every bit as dangerous in an automobile. And whereas a train need only accelerate or decelerate, a driver has full control over the vehicle which is jeopardized when a used cell phone is in play.

A Look Back At The Really Very first Cell Phone Sold Within the United States

When the very first cell phones had been manufactured, they had been big in size and rather bulky. They were also weighty and caused problems when folks carried them around with them. Today, even refurbished or used cell phones can fit in your pocket and hardly weigh more than a few ounces.

The first cell phone was sold on the market within the United States in 1983.

Motorola had the honors of doing this. It was a DynaTac model that weighed a pound and costing consumers about $3,500. The next year, Motorola introduced one more DynaTac version, the 8000X and also the cost was $3,995.

Within the early 1990s, a million subscribers would start utilizing the cell cell phone inside the United States. In 1991, Motorola introduced a third phone model, the MicroTac Lite and also the price tag for that was $1,000.

Even though AT&T and Bell Labs had created a cell cell phone prior to Motorola’s phone’s coming out, it would be years before they could start putting theirs on the market. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) took forever to grant the license that they needed to move forward.

If it hadn’t been for the feds dragging their feet on the issue, AT&T would have shut out Motorola as having the extremely initial cell phone to be sold within the United States. However, that was not to be. At the time the commercial analog service came out, the phone company in Chicago had changed its name to Ameritech from the previous Illinois Bell Phone Company. 

Altogether, it took almost 40 years for the Federal Government to make cell phones commercially available in the United States. Since there was a lot of consumer demand, they had no choice but to up the ante.

By the year 1987, cell cell phone customers had exceeded one million. Back then, the space for cell telephone usage was getting tight and crowded. It was time to implement some changes. The allocation for frequencies was increased, the cells that existed have been split as well as the technology had improved.

The FCC also made some changes. They were not willing to provide additional bandwidth and they did not want to pay for additional splitting cells nor did they want to build any more. Within the same year (1987), the Federal Government decided that other technologies of cell phones could be used. Today, even used cell phones have come a long way since The Brick.

The cell cell phone industry found new ways of embracing technology. This concept is still going on today and has evolved into a money making industry comprised of millions of phones, including older used cell phones that have been recycled back into the market.