Bad driving habits have affected my family for many years. In 2010, my 18 year old cousin was involved in a rollover trailer accident. Through agony and grief we soon discovered he was at fault. While checking a text message he received, he drove onto the opposite lane where a 24-ton trailer approached. Since that fatal lose, my family and I, have pledged to never text and drive. While texting and driving is a leading factor in many accidents across the US, it is not the only one. Experience is a quality many young individuals, like myself, lack. Once we start driving for a couple of months we overestimate our abilities. By singing along to loud music or by eating a hot pocket on our way to school, we dismiss many small but prone to be fatal actions. I was driving home from work one night when I decided to stop at Taco Bell to grab a quick bite. As I was driving home, I had a taco in one hand and the steering wheel on the other all while singing along to one of my favorite songs. When the music stopped, I looked over at the car beside me and saw a young teenage boy. This small diversion nearly created an accident. My threatening actions and rash thinking put the lives of every person on that highway at risk. Soon after, I reevaluated every possible …show more content…
I intent on reminding myself of these simply steps every time I stepfoot in a car. First, I will prioritize myself ahead of time to prevent nonessential interruptions. This means, mapping out my route ahead of time to avert looking down at the GPS and adjusting all car controls beforehand. Occasionally, my eyes tend to wander off the road to check my arrival time or change the settings in the car. Arizona is a bipolar state; one minute it’s chilly and the next it is over 100 degrees. Preparing ahead of time, meaning changing the car controls to what you suits you best, is an important step towards distraction-free
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% ...
As Americans have seen an increase in the amount of texting and driving, there have been several of the 50 states that have put laws in place to help try and put a reduction on the amount of fatalities. The devastating part about this kind of distraction is that nearly every person that owns a cell phone has picked it up at some point while they are driving to make a phone call or send a quick text. They have seen the commercials and they know the hurt that it has caused many families losing someone they love, but we still do it anyways. It’s so easy to tell yourself “It’s just one quick text, I will be fine.” At some point we need to realize this is not ok.
It’s a Friday afternoon and you’re driving to the grocery store after work to pick up a pizza to eat later for dinner. All of your weekend plans are on your mind as you make a right turn. You hear your phone go off and quickly unlock your phone to see what plans are happening tonight. Little do you know you won’t have any plans for this weekend because the text you are about to send will end your life. This might sound harsh but this is exactly how all texting and driving stories go. Texting while driving causes a huge 1,600,000 accidents per year (Distracted Driving), and 11 teens die every day from these accidents. It’s highly likely that while you read this paper someone just got into an accident
One day Chandler Gerber 23, of Bluffton collided with an Amish buggy back in April of 2012. A three year old boy and a five year old girl were killed. A 17 year old boy who was in critical condition died several days later. Chandler was sending a text that said “ I love you” to his wife when he caused the accident. Drivers who were texting were 23.2 times more likely to crash to those who weren’t texting (Cell Phones and Texting). The increasing amount of crashes caused from texting and driving and growing and becoming more of a problem. Distracted driving is an increasing problem in the United States resulting in many accidents, but a solution to the problem would be banning cellphones while driving.
The Northern Virginia driving populace expands consistently coming about because of business and lodging development. Every year additionally brings a wave of new adolescents into the driving populace. Every day amid my average drive one hour drive, I watch drivers content informing on their mobile phones. A late review led by Journey Safe, a safe driving support association, found that in excess of 90% of teens confess to doing different tasks while driving, for example, chatting on the phone, consuming, playing noisy music, channel surfing, utilizing mp3 players, and cooperating with companions in the auto actually when they concede they think that it occupying. The same study results demonstrate that a staggering 75% of adolescents confessed to content informing while driving. Content informing while driving is a developing pattern and is turning into one of the country 's top executioners. In 2011, 1.3 billion (almost 25% of all) car crashes came about because of messaging while driving and 11 adolescents kicked the bucket commonplace from messaging while driving. Notwithstanding, just thirty-nine (39) states in addition to DC restrict all drivers from content informing. Honestly, distracted driving is a perilous reality and it makes driving unsafe business for everybody on the streets. Americans ought to backing the
The top two age groups that are involved in car accidents due to distracted driving are is aged twenty and under with 16% and ages 20-29 with 13% (paragraph 4). Some people may ask how many people actually use their phones while behind the wheel between all drivers, and at any time of the day across America, approximately over six hundred thousand drivers use their cell phone while driving, and that number has been growing and growing since 2010. Teens are more involved in distracted driving accidents than older people aged thirty and up. A study about teens and adults involved in distracted driving accidents displayed that teen drivers are FOUR times more likely to get into a fatal car accident due to distracted driving than an adult (paragraph 11). But everyone is the same when it comes to distracted driving. Many young drivers know the dangers of texting and driving, but just can’t stop it because they are addicted to their cell phones. “Nor is it possible to overestimate how addicted Americans are to their cellphones. In a Transportation Department survey released this week, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said talking on a handheld phone was "very or somewhat unsafe." Yet 77% reported answering calls while driving, and 41% said they made calls.” Some helpful tips to help you stop texting and
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
Nearly twenty-five percent of all accidents are caused by texting and driving. Everyday the number of cellphone users rises, and with that comes an increasing amount of accidents caused by texting and driving. It causes almost eleven teen deaths every day. Writing about her son, John Breen, a mother says, “He was willing to sacrifice his life for our country. It wasn’t war that took JB from us. It wasn’t a bullet or a bomb. It was a text message sent on a little 2” x 4” box that ended his life on a beautiful Sunday afternoon”(DWI:Driving While Intexticated). JB’s mom goes on to discuss the fact JB thought he was invincible and did not listen to his father, only hours before the accident, when he told him to put the phone down because it was
We live in a technology driven time when people multitask behind the wheel. The commute to and from work is a time many like to get caught up on emails or figure out plans for the day or weekend thought texting. The truth is that multitasking behind the wheel is very dangerous and could cost you your life. Text, emails, phone calls, makeup, breakfast; it all can wait! If you don’t make it home alive your weekend plans really won’t matter much anymore.
One of the major cell phone companies AT&T, has had enormous success in launching its “It Can Wait” campaign.AT&T is using its campaign to show ttenagers the damaging effects of texting and driving and what it can do to everyone around. Texting and driving should be tied into the school systems learning guidelines as most teenagers think that texting and driving is not as big of a deal as it seems to be. In a study done by() results showed that thirteen percent of drivers age eighteen to twenty involved in car accidents admitted to being on their phones at the time of the crash. And seventy seven percent of teenagers say they are somewhat confident in that they can text and drive safely. This should be a a major eye opener to all members of society. The new generation has very little real world experience in how texting and driving can really affect them and their
I hope you both take this seriously and remember all of these tasks while driving. It will help save your life as well as others as I have mentioned before. So, take this information and drill it into your head so no tragedies will occur from poor judgment.
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).
These technologies have made driving an easier and enjoyable experience, as well as reducing our chances of getting into accidents. The research presented in the following article “Driven to Distraction [in car technology]” provided surprising conclusions. Professor John D. Lee from the University of Iowa states the following issue: “Technology is changing very quickly. Many of these things coming into the car were not designed to be used in it. ”(Edwards 8).
“The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status, or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we all believe that we are above-average drivers” -Dave Barry, comedian. The number of accidents over the last ten years have drastically increased, drivers are paying less attention to the road itself. Many individuals behind the wheel of a car believe that their driving does not affect the road conditions, however it always will. The driving habits of today are catastrophic due to the reasoning that the driving will affect other lives through reckless or distracted driving, and disobeying traffic laws.
Road safety is one of the most important aspects of daily living. Our vehicle is our main transportation from one place to another. The number of car and motorcycle accidents seem to be increasing because of the many distractions, the lack of safety measures and judgment to road conditions and weather. Not being cautious increases the chances of not only injuring ourselves but hurting others as well. On the road, you see people talking on their cell phones or texting, eating, putting makeup on, changing the radio station, reading or using your GPS while driving. These are all distractions that endanger drivers, passengers and bystanders safety. Safe driving involves off-road precautionary measures such as making sure tires are properly inflated, testing windshield wipers, getting regular oil changes and tune-ups and adjusting the mirrors. All of these actions can help prevent an accident. Unfortunately, not all of us decide to wear our seat belts when driving or turn signal ligh...