Texting While Driving in New Hampshire: Expensive and Dangerous

I was driving to work on Route 95 the other day, and I looked to my right at the car driving next to me in the other lane.  It was then I did a double take.

There she was, a driver maybe in her 30's, texting with one hand, and driving with the other.   This caused me to speed up and move away from her vehicle because that was an accident waiting to happen.

Unfortunately, many drivers get away with it, but a few tragically don't.

There's another reason besides a highway disaster (if that's not enough) to avoid texting and driving.

New Hampshire drivers, you might not be aware of these numbers, but if you are stopped for texting while driving, your insurance rates could go up by 32%, or another $190 annually for minimum coverage.  This is according to marketwatch.com.

It gets worse for full coverage, with a possible increase of 21%, equal to an extra $357 yearly.   That's quite an increase.

While many of the newer vehicles have "talk to text" features, there are just as many older vehicles which don't.   This means people are texting "for a few seconds" which could make them drift into another lane, or jump a curb, or hit a pedestrian or other car.

We know the dangers, but we do it anyway.

Maybe knowing your insurance can skyrocket will help make it a deterrent.

Auto insurance expert,  David Straughan from Market Watch Guides says, "That text message you just got isn’t a matter of life or death, but responding to it while you’re driving very well could be".

Also, "At 70 miles per hour, you travel 103 feet in one second. And 103 feet can be the difference between seeing the brake lights on the car in front of you on time to stop safely and a rear-end collision."

That's scarier than your insurance rate hike.