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Dangers of texting while driving
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Texting While Driving
While there are many causes of deaths in the United States, a huge epidemic that concerns officials more and more is the amount of deaths occurring because of texting while driving. Texting and driving can kill in split seconds—just the amount of time it takes to send a “quick” text message. The U.S. Government should ban texting while driving in all fifty states. For the reasons being that cell phones cause many distractions, there are numerous amounts of risks while texting behind the wheel and it slows down your reaction time.
Driving is a serious matter that requires our full attention at all times. Anyone who believes they are mature enough to take on the privilege of operating a vehicle must be responsible enough to know how dangerous a car could become. Vehicles are potential weapons; the way I look at it, sitting behind the wheel is almost like being behind a loaded gun because of the fact that you can take your life or someone else’s in the matter of seconds. Driving is a privilege, not a right.
Distracted driving is a deadly behavior. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, (NHTSA) states that “In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving” (FARS and GES). Along with cell phone use there are limitless amounts of distractions while being behind the wheel which include, but do not limit to: eating, having other passengers in the car, changing the radio station, and doing your make up. The American Automobile Association (AAA) suggests that “distraction contributes to 16% of all fatal crashes, leading to around 5,000 deaths every year” (Hochs).
There are...
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...f a text is that important and cannot wait, designate a texter, borrow thumbs from a friend and have them text for you. No text is important enough to risk your life. Like AT&T says, “It can wait”.
Works Cited
Copeland, Larry. "USATODAY.com." USATODAY.com. USA Today, 2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
GES, FARS. "Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks. Facts." Texting and Driving Prevention. AdCouncil, 2008. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Hoch, John E. "Distracted Driving." AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. American Automobile Association, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Kuriakose, Dhiya. "Mashable." Mashable. Mashable, 2013. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
"National Distracted Driving." National Distracted Driving. National Safety Council, 1995. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
"Texting While Driving Doubles Reaction Time." CBS Miami. CBS NEWS, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
“New Devices Aim to Eliminate Distracted Driving.” Issues & Controversies. Infobase Learning, 11 Oct. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Texting while driving is national growing trend, and it is quickly becoming one of the country’s top killers. Most drivers think they can manage to text and drive and still stay safe on the roads; however, the numbers do not lie! According to the National Safety Council, 1,600,000 accidents per year are caused by someone who was texting and driving. Laws and penalties for this act are too lax, and tougher laws should be enforced.
Distracted driving includes not only texting and calling, but also eating, navigation, and conversing with passengers. (Idaho Transportation Department). This is a serious problem, and danger to not only ourselves, but those around us. On any given day between when the
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
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.
Even if a driver reads the statistics of texting while driving, he or she will find a way to justify doing so. 77% of young adults are very or somewhat confident that they can safely text while driving and 55% of young drivers say that it’s easy to text while driving (“DWI” 1). These statistics are heartbreaking and unfortunate, because so many drivers don’t value the lives of passengers in their car or drivers on the road. While these teens may seem confident, it is still a dangerous problem. Since studies show that 10% of their driving time is spent outside of their lane (“DWI”
Worth noting, is the fact that most drivers are persuaded to the belief that they can send some messages without negatively affecting their driving capabilities. However, some important studies have revealed that drivers are not as capable of multi-tasking as they believe they are. Researchers have revealed that drivers who text ...
Teens need to be taught that driving is a task that is complex and demanding. Parents know how much experience a young driver has, and they know exactly how inconvenient it is when they have to drive with their teen everywhere while they have their permit. Teens tend to cause most traffic accidents in adults’ eyes. They are not experienced yet, and often fail to pay attention to others on the road. They often think of a car as being some type of toy, but they do not know how powerful it really is. The driver education programs must be strengthened in order to make sure that students really have safer habits, behind the wheel experience, and by having a better understanding of all the laws on the road.
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.
Each day in the United States, over 8 people are killed and 1,161 injured in crashes that are reported to involve a distracted driver (Distracted Driving). There are a few different
Thesis statement: Risks of texting while driving over the past few years has become a key topic for many Americans through the country. It has been the cause of numerous deaths and injuries and remains a vast disturbance for drivers. Hence driving is one of the greatest common causes of misfortunes on roads. This can result in, physical visual and cognitive distraction and significantly increases the amount of time a driver devotes not looking at the road. Therefore police officers should seize the phones of those who text and drive.
We as a society need to all take responsibility when we are on the road and avoid the many temptations and distractions surrounding us. Distracted driving is dangerous plain and simple. Some may be willing to take the risk because they have never had an accident while behind the wheel. But it’s
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).
Janet Froetscher who is on the National Safety Council stated, “We know that at least 1.6 million car crashes involve drivers using cell phones and texting.” This high number of accidents breaks down to 11 deaths of just teenagers a day. Texting while driving should be made illegal to save lives. Mike Dudzinski a current fire captain of Peoria, Arizona stated in an interview that in just a year he experiences about 100 deaths with texting being the cause. Texting while driving is a wide controversy that needs to be made as a law in order to protect lives.
The main distraction of driving is cell phones. Most adults and teens will engage in texting and driving. Due to the major issue of texting and driving many campaigns have been launched, one being launched by AT&T “when it comes to texting and driving, it can wait.” This campaign has many drivers take the pledge to no longer use their phone when driving, there is an available app that will send out automatic messages to anybody that sends a while the individual is driving. When someone is driving at the rate of 55 miles per hour for only 4.6 seconds, it will equal the length of a football field, 100 yards. So, even stopping full vision from the road for a few seconds will still risk serious danger. Another cause of distracted driving is being exhausted or tired, doing so will cause a much slower reaction time. The slower reaction time causes many of the accidents that happen when people are tired. Another possibility is falling asleep behind the wheel even for a few seconds you could drift, or swerv into another lane and hit another car causing a major or fatal car accident. When taking driving classes, the students within the class will hear the saying “stay alert, stay alive.” The final major distraction of driving is eating and drinking. One of the problems of eating and drinking while driving is that it causes both a visual and manual distraction. When removing your eyes from the road many dangers will be