Physics of Texting and Driving

We are all told that we should never text and drive. It's a distraction on the road that people everywhere are guilty of. Our nation loses thousands of lives due to texting and driving accidents, but people still don't seem to understand the dangers of it. But how do we know when an accident was caused by someone being distracted by their cell phones? How do we know the person didn't just have an unfortunate accident? Simple, physics.

Using simple equations, like distance times time, we are able to test out the reaction time of people to unexpected events. Through the work of physics, physicists are able to test whether or not the people in the accident were distracted on road, or if they had a reasonable reaction time.