Texting While Driving

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Cell Phone Use While Driving Should be Banned:
A Research Essay
In Missouri in August 2010, a truck slammed into the back of another vehicle when it had “slowed due to an active construction zone” (Hart 3). Because of that collision, the truck was rear-ended by two school buses. There were two fatalities and nearly forty injuries. It was revealed that the driver at fault had “sent and received” more than a dozen messages in the minutes before the crash. Investigators determined that this distraction was the main cause of the fatal accident (Hart 3). Obviously, this fatal crash could have been avoided if the driver had not been using his cell phone at the time of the crash. Texting is one of many ways drivers can be distracted while operating …show more content…

Some groups argue that the use of cell phones can be safe for small amounts of time (“Cell” 1). Additionally, it is believed there are many other distractions that are not taken into account, and that there is an unfair focus on cell phones (“Cell” 1). Believers of that may not know that “...texting while driving 55 m.p.h. is similar to driving the length of a football field with one's eyes closed” (Hanes 2). The reason that cell phones are singled out the most is that they are the most distracting, as well as used widespread. Even looking down at a phone for one second can distract you from the road. Not well known, driving while using a phone is just as, and if not more, dangerous than driving intoxicated (Hanes 1). Both cases have the same “reaction speed” (Hanes 1). Drunk driving is well known to be extremely dangerous and profoundly looked down upon. Yet, according to this research, both utilizing a phone and driving drunk are equally as catastrophic. Despite the similarity, many more people use their cell phones while driving than driving drunk (Hanes 1). Some challengers say that research is not strong enough to support the idea that legislation can decrease accident rates. A researching group failed to see a difference in crash rates while comparing states that ban texting while driving and those that do not (Halsey 1). The US Department of Transportation found similar

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