“Hey guys look no hands”, is not something a family member or a friend never wants to hear from a friend or a loved one in a text message especially while that person is driving. The use of a cellphone is considered a necessity now a day among drivers that are currently on the road. People have to be socially connected with their friends all the time. Several individuals need to be constantly sending messages to their friends and family members with the use of a cellphone while driving. More and more drivers have the urge to use their cell phones while driving. This dangerous mixture can result to be even deadly. “As one researcher concluded, a cellphone draws attention away from the routines that would provide a good representation of the driving environment” (qtd. in Seppa 3). So just how dangerous can texting while driving actually be? According to Monash University, “those drivers who use handheld devices while driving are four times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves” (qtd. in Wilson 1). This is not good because there are thousands of divers that are on the road at any given time. University of Utah reports, “Using a cell phone while driving, whether it’s handheld or hands-free, delays the driver’s reaction as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of 0.08%” (qtd. in Wilson 1). With more drivers out there that lead to the possibility that a crash could happen “The time it takes to is an average of 4.6 seconds, would be equal to traveling the length of a football field at 55mph visionless.” (Wilson 1). Carnegie Mellon reports, “that with the use of a mobile cellphone reduces the amount of brain activity by associated with driving by 37%” (qtd. in Wilson 1). The Nation... ... middle of paper ... ...w.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1593_3504_22760-238359--,00.html#noprint Huber, Jeremy. Personal Interview. 24 Nov. 2013. Schultz, Nick. Telephone Interview. 22 November 2013. Jackson, Nancy Mann. “Dn’t txt n Drv: Why You Should Disconnect While Driving.” Current Health Teens, Mar. 2011:6+. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Seppa, Nathan. “Impactful Distraction: Talking While Driving Poses Dangers that Drivers Seem Unable to See.” Science News 184.4 (2013):20-24.Readers Guide Full Text Mega. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. “The National Safety Council Looks into New Study on the Brain’s Ability to Safely Drive and use a Cell Phone.” Entertainment Close-up 17 June 2013. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Wilson, H.W. “April Is National Distracted Driving Month.”57, No.4:14. Applied Science and Technology Full Text. EBSCO Accessed Nov. 18, 2013.
One woman, Ms. Smith, who was affected by this issue, did some research into what made texting while driving so dangerous. She was shocked to find that a driver on the phone has the same reaction time as a drunk driver. Hane’s article also discusses cell phone addiction and the bad habits people have with cell phones. Researchers have found that a person who noticed they received a text message gets a big rush to their brain, much like professional gamblers when they hit the jackpot.
Seppa, Nathan. "Impactful Distraction: Talking While Driving Poses Dangers That People Seem Unable To See." Science News 184.4 (2013): 20. Master FILE Premier. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
This paper examines the dangers that arise when cell phones are used at the same time as operating a vehicle. The paper will explore the following question of why this is a problem and why the research is important. The variables investigated are the use of cell phones while driving, whether speaking or texting, and the accidents and fatalities caused from the distraction. Data of the accidents and fatalities caused by drivers distracted by their cells phones is stated to research and further explores the age group and gender of the people involved into the accidents to uncover patterns. Possible outcomes of the implementation of laws prohibiting cell phone use while driving are discussed as well as the sampling measures used to survey and research the variables.
Those that think it is ok to text and drive do not realize how much harm, and danger they are putting their lives at, and the lives of others that are on the road as well. Even if one thinks that they are a good enough driver to be on their phone while they drive, still are not guaranteed that they will not get in an accident. No matter how much someone has been driving, or how good they are does not mean they should be using their phones, because just by taking a glance at their phone for a second could instantly change their lives, if they were to ever get in a car crash, or hurt another human
The several effects of distracted driving are deadly. Andrew Lavallee points out that “texting while driving is unsafe. Not only are a driver’s eyes off the road, one or both hands are off the wheel.” “We think it is incompatible with safe driving” (qtd. in Lavallee). “Study upon study showed that talking on a cellphone was far more dangerous than she’d realized – that a driver on a phone had the same reaction speed as someone legally intoxicated, that those talking on a phone behind the wheel are four times as likely to crash” (qtd. in Hanes). Stephanie Hanes also mentions that, “Unlike a conversation with a passenger, the electronic conversation takes a driver into a virtual space away from the road.” Subsequently, this causes severe problems and deadly
Most people think of someone using their cell phone while driving when they hear distracted driving, but it it much more than that. Distracted driving is when someone who is behind the wheel get distracted by either taking their hands off the wheel or take their mind of driving, which can cause them to get into an accident (paragraph 2). Distracted driving is broken down into three main parts, manual distractions which is taking your hands off the steering wheel, visual distractions which is taking your center of attention off the road and cognitive distraction which is when your mind is not focused on driving and just starts drifting away (paragraph 3). Cell phone use is easily the biggest cause of distracted driving compared to eating, talking, and others because using your cell phone requires visual, manual and cognitive attention from the person behind the wheel and in a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, the amount of people who break the law and use a handheld device behind the wheel increases every single year. An estimated amount of more than, six hundred thousand people use their phone while driving. Distracted driving has quickly risen and developed in the past few years and is becoming an enormous problem. In a recent study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), showed statistics of approximately three thousand, one hundred fifty
The cell phone however, while convenient, will often lead to many hazardous accidents and sometimes deaths. While most will admit using a cell phone while driving is dangerous, many still do it. Distracted driving as a whole should been seen as a violent act of selfishness closely related to murderous intent. The use of a cell phone behind the wheel is just like being drunk behind the wheel so it is easy to imagine thousands of people driving throughout the day “drunk”. David L. Strayer, Professor at the University of Utah in Cognition and Neural Science, reveals in his research “A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver” that “people who drive while talking on their cell phones are as impaired as drunk drivers with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 %”(Strayer). With this in mind it is no wonder Distracted driving is a common factor in collisions. This can be understood in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s article, “NHTSA Policy and FAQs on Cellular Phone Use While Driving”. In the article, the NHTSA concedes that “driving distractions, including the use of cell phones, contribute to 25% of all traffic crashes” (NHTSA.gov). The reader should keep in mind that distracted driving is closely related to cell phone
Over the past two decades the use of cell phones has grown significantly and statistic from the past two years have proven that driving while on the phone or texting is becoming one of the leading causes of traffic accidents today. In 2011, a survey of more than 2800 American adults revealed that even thought they know that using a cell phone or texting while driving is distracting, they do it anyway, and teens surveyed admit that texting while driving is their number one distraction. "Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% ...
A word has started to appear in discussions of driving. The word is "distracted." It refers to drivers who pay more attention to their cell phones, or their text messages, than they do to driving. The results can be fatal. One of the most common distractions today is texting. Each day in the United States, 9 people are killed and more than 1,060 people are injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver (Center). A couple of months ago, I and a friend were sitting at a red light waiting on green. We were talking about making plans for later that evening. We decided what to do as soon as the light turned green, we waited on the car in front of us to ease off the line. Then we were hit. This turned into a five car pileup. The driver of the fifth car back was texting at the red light; he hit the gas too quick and ended up hitting the next car, pushing them into the next, and so on. When the officer got there he questioned the man. The man admitted to texting behind the wheel, said he thought the light was green, and hit the gas. Three people were critically injured due to texting. “Texting is a very dangerous distraction, it is now more common than drinking and driving” (Gozzi). We all know drinking and driving is a very serious thing, but so is texting while driving. As a society, we just don’t see it that way.
Texting while driving is a widespread epidemic in the United States that has unfavorable effects on our society.“Driving while texting is the standard wording used for traffic violations” (Bernstein). It causes many people to be distracted which can lead to accidents. “Eighty-nine percent of people own a cell phone” (Gardner). That is a plethora of people that are at risk of texting while driving. Also, texting has increased by ten times in three years(Bernstein). “The risk of a crash for those who are texting is twenty-three point two times greater than those who are not” (Gardner).Driving drunk only makes a person seven times more likely to be in a crash (Bernstein). This means texting while driving is three times more dangerous than driving intoxicated. One in five drivers admits to texting while driving(Gardner). This shows that that texting while driving is a widespread epidemic. When a survey asked teenagers whether they text and drive,“seventy five percent of teens admitted to texting while driving” (7).Distracted driving causes seventy-eight percent of car crashes(Bernstein). “No distraction causes as high of a risk of an accident as texting while driving” (Gardner). Also with these statistics, it is not hard to understand why accidents in teenagers that are driving have risen. The Bluetooth capability in cars gives a driver a hands-free way to talk on the phone, but is still not completely safe (8). Also, only 1 out of 3 US cars sold in 2009 had this feature. New systems are being developed that will use Bluetooth as well a global positioning technology to allow parents to monitor cell phone use and texting while driving (10).
As usual, you are fifteen minutes late to volleyball practice which is clear across town. You grab your bag and run out to your new car your parents just bought you. As you begin to pull out of your driveway your phone starts playing your favorite song by Cardi B. You look down to see you received a text from your best friend who is currently having problems with her boyfriend. Without thinking, you call her right away as you drive to practice. How safe is it to be talking on the phone while driving? Over the last decade, the use of cell phones has been on the rise. Along with this, driving a car and using a cell phone at the same time has also seen an increase among individuals. In a series of experiments conducted by Strayer and Johnston, they explore the extent to which a conversation on a hands-free or hand-held cell phone interferes with an individual’s driving.
Not only does it put the driver of the car in danger, but it also puts the passengers and the surrounding cars at risk. Using a cell phone while driving has been proven to be just as dangerous as driving under the influence. At any given moment during the day, around 800,000 people are driving cars while using a hand-held device, which unfortunately puts everyone else at risk of a car crash. In the recent year, 21% of fatal car crashes involved the use of a cellular device (Prof. David J. Hanson, 1997-2015). Unfortunately, humans, especially teenagers, cannot put down their cell phones while they drive due to the many notifications they receive. They are addicted. This points back to how the cell phones are affecting the mental health of humans. In 2007, Bailey Goodman, a seventeen-year-old, was killed along with four of her friends in a car accident. Goodman
Studies conducted measures to calculate the distraction level while performing a wide level of tasks, while driving of course. American Automobile Association conducted that listening
Texting and driving has become a huge issue in today’s society. Many teens, as well as adults, have formed a habit of using their cell phone while driving. It is distracting and the probabilities of getting into an accident are higher than if you are not using your cell phone.
An average of 50% of American teens and more than two thirds of American college students admit to texting and driving (Biscontini Par.1). In a study provide by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute indicated that texting while driving can delay a drivers reaction time enough to make him or her twice as likely to be in a “safety-critical event,” which can being anything from stomping our you brakes to a collision between two vehicles (Biscontini Par. 2). Texting and driving has been an issue ever since the creation of texting. For people to be able to successfully text they would have to take one hand off the wheel and both hands if they felt it was needed. Now with new advancements in technology we have the ability to use vocal command. Vocal command applications like Apple’s Siri are used without having to take your hands off of the wheel (Biscontini Par. 3). Taking one or both hands off of the wheel while driving is not what causes the most danger. The dangerous part of this wanting to communicate in the car is that our attention is being divided. This is a problem that has a negative effect on our driving because all of our attention should be on the road in front of