Editor’s note: Today’s letters to the editor are from Southwest Junior High students learning about persuasive writing.

To the editor:

According to The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Motorists, drivers who use cell phones while driving are four times as likely to crash. When Nationwide Insurance Co. surveyed 1,200 drivers, 73 percent said that they talk on the phone while driving. States have already taken these problems into mind when making laws banning phone usage while driving. In many states they have banned bus drivers from using their phone while passengers are present because if a bus gets in a crash it can kill multiple people. That’s a lot of people raising their chance of crashing. Harvard Center for Risk Analysis says that 2,600 people die each year and 330,000 get injured by using their cell phone when driving.

Text messaging is also very dangerous because it takes your eyes off the road and your head out of your driving lane. One-fifth of experienced adult drivers in the U.S. say they send text messages while driving. Make sure you keep your eyes on the road and your mind on driving so you don’t get into a fatal situation.

Lindsay Kelly,

Southwest Junior High