Texting while driving is just as dangerous as drinking or smoking while driving

Let's go ahead and lay down some burdens, just to make sure we are clear on what this debate is about. In order for Pro to win, I must prove that texting while driving is equally or more dangerous than driving under the influence. In order for Con to win, he must prove my lines of argumentation to be false and must conversely prove that texting while driving is not as dangerous as drinking or smoking while operating a car. Also, Con offered no scope on the resolution, as to what area of the globe we are discussing, which is important in my point 1. Because no scope has been offered, I'll go ahead and assume we are talking about the whole globe. Con is welcome to contest this if he believes a different scope is necessary, Now, that thats cleared up, lets take a look at several main points. 1. Smoking is either not a hazard, or an insignificant problem. I'm a little confused as to why smoking made its way into this debate, as tobacco has no effect on an individual's awareness or consciousness, and is done while driving across the globe. Con didn't clarify what exactly he means by smoking, so for the purposes of an intelligent debate, I will assume he is talking about marijuana: a substance that actually DOES have an effect on awareness. However, that argument has little weight since only 4 out of the 50 states in the US allow recreational marijuana. Likewise, less than 10 countries out of the 200+ countries on this planet legalized the substance for non-medical use. Sources for point 1 : . http://www.cnn.com... . http://www.bbc.co.uk... 2. No Con support given. Because Con did not state that round 1 was acceptance, I am forced to assume that the sentence description he gave above is his entire argument. The problem lies in the fact that he lacks a warrant, or any reason why we should believe his assertion. Socrates once famously stated, "He who asserts must prove. " Thus, Con must prove it to be true with a warrant(s). .. he can't just rephrase the resolution. 3. Texting is very dangerous, but for different reasons. Quite recently, a study was performed by the Transport Research Laboratory where they recruited, "17 young drivers between the ages of 17 and 24 and had them perform driving simulation tests to see how their driving would be affected by reading and writing text messages without putting them in real danger. The results show those who occupied themselves with text messages, either by reading or writing them, had slower reactions times by 35%. By comparison, drunk drivers displayed a 12% decrease in reaction time, while drivers intoxicated with cannabis had slowed response times by 21%. " Source: . http://www.techtimes.com... Additionally, texting forces both of the driver's eyes be off of the road, meaning they can drift into another lane or perhaps into ongoing traffic. Often if they are texting they can suddenly hit a median because their car was slightly drifting in one direction. The same exact consequences occur with driving under the influence: you lose complete awareness and often start drifting from lane to lane. In a study done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, texting increases the chances of crashing by around 23%, because it takes the driver's eyes off the road for an average of 4.6s"each time. Distracteddrivingaccidents. com summarizes this point: "To put that into perspective, if a vehicle is traveling at 55mph, the average driver doesn"t look at the road for about the length of an entire football field while sending a text. " Sources: . http://www.techtimes.com... . http://distracteddriveraccidents.com... Finally, there's one more study I'd like to promote, and that is a study done by the Car and Driver magazine. The people at the magazine tested (in the car) the response times of someone who was legally drunk, someone who was reading an email, and someone who was texting in the car. Here were the results: (copied from CNBC website for upmost accuracy) Unimpaired: .54 seconds to brake Legally drunk: add 4 feet Reading e-mail: add 36 feet Sending a text: add 70 feet Source: . http://www.cnbc.com... --------------------------- In the end, the debate boils down to the facts. The studies performed and listed above clearly indicate that texting is every bit of a threat, if not more, than drunk driving (includes driving under the influence of marijuana. ) Because Con brought up no studies of his own, nor any reason at all to believe him, I would urge you to vote Pro. Thanks!