I write this as a retired traffic patrol police officer, and believe me, at the scenes of serious-injury or fatal road crashes I have heard some stunningly pathetic excuses from drivers about why they weren’t paying attention when they hit someone else.
So if YOU choose to ignore all the solid advice about never using a phone* while driving, or you read or send texts while driving, what excuse would YOU make at the scene of a crash you had caused. And what meaningless excuse would you try make to the family members of a person you had killed?
We also have more-detailed information about the scale and devastation of road deaths in the USA each year.
*Footnote: Don’t fall into the trap of believing that only hand-held cellphones are dangerous to use when driving and hands-free phones are safe. Research shows that using a hands-free phone is just as dangerous but because it is impossible for law enforcement officers to see a driver doing it, hands-free usage simply cannot be policed. And in the meanwhile, cellphone companies have done a huge amount to get legislators to focus only on texting so that the very lucrative area of phone conversations will not be affected by safety laws…. cynical, wicked profiteering at its very ‘best’!
There are, of course, plenty other causes of distraction; not just phones and texting. And they can all be deadly.