On Sept. 3, S.C. Highway Patrol Cpl. Bill Rhyne came to Chapman’s driver’s education class to discuss the importance of safe driving.

“The number one killer of American teens is distracted driving,” Rhyne said.

He noted three types of distractions: visual, manual and mental.

He stressed to students the dangers of texting and driving.

“Texting is the most alarming distraction because it uses all three types of distractions,” Rhyne said. “Texting and driving is more dangerous than driving under the influence.”

As an example, he said that if you are driving 60 miles per hour, that is 88 feet per second. It takes five seconds to just receive a text. That means the driver in this case would go 400 feet without looking at the road.

“In a perfect world it would take 1.3 seconds to react, but that’s in a perfect world,” Rhyne said.

Part of the problem with distraction stems from the fact that humans think they can multitask but that truly doesn’t exist.

“Your mind can only physically do one thing at a time,” Rhyne said.

Rhyne said that the biggest piece of advice for beginning drivers would be to remember that they don’t have much experience.

“Understand that you are a beginner,” Rhyne said. “Make sure you know that you are inexperienced.”

Drivers should take precautions immediately.

“Put your seatbelt on at all times,” Rhyne said. “Be sure that your passengers ensure no distractions and no cell phones.”

One of the biggest things that drivers misunderstand is that it takes only a few seconds for something horrific to happen.

“People take it (driving) for granted,” Rhyne said. “A thousand pound vehicle is also a deadly weapon and it only takes a split second for you to have a wreck.”

He also noted that there are legal consequences to unsafe driving:

“Remember, you are always only one step away from going to prison,” he said.