Distracted Driving and Car Accidents

Drivers need to be fully aware of their surroundings while driving. They must always know what is going on around them. One of the most common causes of car accidents is distracted driving. As of 2011, 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 injured due to accidents involving a distracted driver (Statistics on Texting & Cell Phone Use While Driving). That means that at least 3,331 people lost a loved one in accident involving someone who chose to drive distracted. In 2011, statistics showed that an estimated 1.6 million car accidents involved drivers using cell phones while driving (National Safety Council). Of course there are other forms of distracted driving other than using a cell phone. Another common form of distracted driving is driving while intoxicated. Some may believe that driving while intoxicated is more dangerous than using a cell phone while driving. According to an article in The Atlantic Monthly, this assumption is incorrect and a study showed that driving while talking on a cell phone can be more dangerous than driving drunk. The study, done through a driving simulation, compared the driving response times of someone who was legally intoxicated and someone using a cell phone (Under the Sprintfluence). This is an alarming result and should not be taken lightly. Most drivers want to be able to feel safe when driving. Nobody wants to be in a car accident or cause one. The use of cell phones while driving is too dangerous and must be stopped.
Every state in the United States has one of three laws in effects against using a cell phone while driving. A total of 32 states and Washington D.C. follow a law that prohibits novice drivers from cell phone use while driving (Texting and Driving Statistics). This means that someo...

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...er’s attention off of the road. By taking one’s eyes off the road, he or she often does not realize if excessively high speeds are being reached in the process (qtd. in Lissy, Cohen, Park, and Graham 41). Hands-free cell phone use is not nearly as bad as handheld cell phone use while driving, because it does not require one to remove his or her hands off of the wheel to use a hands-free device. This may be true, but according to Robert Rosenberger’s article “The Problem with Hands-Free Dashboard Cellphones,” scientific evidence has revealed that both handheld and hands-free cell phone use is associated with a drop in one’s driving performance (Rosenberger 38). In order to significantly reduce the risks of cell phone use while driving the United States must implement a law completely prohibiting the use of both handheld and hands-free cell phone use while driving.