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essay on distracted driving
essay on distracted driving
essay on distracted driving
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Distracted Driving Kelsey Raffaele was driving home one day, when her car ran off the road and had hit a snow bank and spiraled into oncoming traffic. She then got T-boned by a SUV. She was rushed to the hospital where she died without even regaining consciousness. Police had recreated the scene with chalk and had thought to have been the causes from just a novice driver. Until they had found a cellphone in the back of the mangled car. Kelsey was actually on the phone while driving, and had crashed. The last words Kelsey got to say was “I’m Going to Crash” over the phone to a friend (Lowy). She is not the only one who uses cellular devices and drives, she was just one of the few who did and got in an accident. There is more than just texting, there’s GPS, radios, Mp3 players and another big one is other passengers. Distracted driving is getting easier for you to do and for more than one reason, there’s the new technology that keeps coming out keeping our eyes from the road, texting is probably the worst distraction and passengers really help lead to car accidents. In 2009 a federal data report had said that distracted drivers where the cause of 3,331 deaths and injuring an additional 387,000 (Fuller). “Car accidents are the No. 1 cause of death of teens” says Cricket Fuller, he also says that “a quarter of all teen-driving crashes are attributed to distract driving”. Even though the death rate of teen drivers is going down, an average of seven deaths a day still occur (Kowalski). Debacco-Ernie had said that “any time a teen driver is out on the road after 10 p.m., the probability of them being involved in a crash increases dramatically” (Carr). 4.6 seconds is the time to travel the length of a football field if you are go... ... middle of paper ... ... Teens Who Text and Drive Take Even More Risks." Gannett News Service: n.p. May 10 2013. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 7 Nov. 2013 . Kowalski, Megan, and Jayne O'Donnell. "Big Brother Watches Teen Drivers." USA TODAY. 18 Jul 2013: B.4. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 Nov 2013. Lowy, Joan. "Study: Distracted Driving Deaths Underreported." Gleaner. 08 May 2013: n.p. SIRS I Neyfakh, Leon. "Why We Can't Stop." Boston Globe. 06 Oct 2013: K.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Dec 2013.ssues Researcher. Web. 07 Nov 2013. Solis, Steph. "California Court Bans use of Smart Phone Maps while Driving." Christian Science Monitor: n.p. Apr 08 2013. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 7 Nov. 2013 . Vlasic, Bill. "Designing Dashboards with Fewer Distractions." New York Times: B.1. Jul 06 2013. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 7 Nov. 2013
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 cell phone provider known as AT&T has produced several commercials to show the dangers of texting and driving. These are designed to grab people’s attention and to touch them in a small place in there heart to the point that they no longer feel the need to pick up their phone in the car. They stress over and over the dangers of reading just one text. There have even been safety precautions placed in teens vehicles that record them as well as the road while they are driving to catch any of this distracted behavior. 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 has owned 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 loosing someone they love, but we still to 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
2,796 people were injured. There were also 17 deaths caused by distracted drivers in 2013.
According to Stephanie Hanes in the essay “Texting While Driving Is as Dangerous as Drunk Driving,” a driver on a phone and those talking on a phone are four times likely to crash. This statistic shows how dangerous using the phone or even texting is while driving. As technology has increased, so has the use of cellphone. Distracted driving has caused an increase in car fatalities and disasters. However, distracted driving can be prevented if drivers take precautions, but no matter what we do, trouble will always be spelling on the road.
Drivers in their 20s make up 27 percent of the distracted drivers in fatal crashes (NHTSA). In a class of 30 High School sophomores students between the ages of 15 and 16, will be in their twenties within 4-5 years. Within this short amount of time, that means that 8 of them will be responsible for a fatal car crash. If they survive the crash, they will face charges of irresponsible driving, if not something worse such as vehicular manslaughter which can result in up to 20 years in prison. This will affect them for the rest of their lives. But the answer lies not in stricter driving laws. The solution lies in educating motorists about the dangers and punishments of distracted driving. For example, a study was conducted using a driving simulator.
Have you ever been on a cell phone while driving or seen someone on his or her cell phone while driving? This is distracted driving at its finest. Whether you are looking at a text, changing radio stations, applying makeup, or anything else that takes your mind or eyes off the road is distracted driving. Distracted driving killed around 3,000 people in 2011 (Bauers). Car crashes are the leading cause of teenagers in the United States. If you don’t think you are distracted behind the wheel think again, many people think they aren’t distracted till something bad happens to them, like a crash, driving into a ditch, or running a red light and get a ticket for it. Distracted driving is a major problem and most people don’t know their distracted or what is a distraction to him or her.
One of the dangers of texting and driving is that it causes distractions. These distractions cause car accidents and unnecessary deaths of innocent drivers on the road. In a recent report done in 2011 The National Safety Council
You hear sirens whale as you drive along the highway you pull over to let the emergency vehicle pass and maybe say a quick prayer. The truth is, it is common and depending on the location you are likely to see a car crash on most days. In Kansas alone a car crash happens every 8.4 minutes. Yet even with all the car crashes we see, people still do not think it could happen to them. "Every year, about 421,000 people are injured in crashes that have involved a driver who was distracted in some way." http://distracteddriveraccidents.com/25-shocking-distracted
The number of teens who assume they are not at risk when sending a text or drunk while operating a motor vehicle can be attributed to their lack of awareness to the danger they are putting themselves, their passengers, and other drivers into.
Driving while distracted is deadly. Texting is involved in about 25% of all car accidents in the US and that is only texting. Activities such as tuning or listening to a radio, eating and drinking, monitoring children and pets, or even conversing with a passenger, all of these mentally engaging activities, reduce driving performance leaving you at a greater risk for crashing.
In recent years high-tech devices such as smart phones have been great additions to society as a means of communication and entertainment. These additions have made everyday errands and tasks much simplier, but in the wrong hands at the wrong time, they can lead to catastrophe. Matt Richtel, Author of "Texting and Driving? Watch Out for the Textalyzer," has concluded that texting can wait and that it is a major problem since he states that road fatalities have increased " roughly 8 percent in 2015" from 2014. Matt goes on to include survey information that provides confessions from the public that people text and use social media frequently while driving. According to information that Matt provided, the state wants to "treat distracted driving like drunken driving" as a solution to lower the liklihood of people using their cell phone while driving.
Many people would disagree that teens driving at the age of 16 are not a responsible age to start driving. While teens have just learned how to drive, distracted driving is found most common in teenage driving, which has innocent people on and off the roads worried about their lives. This is further shown that many teens feel entitled to acquire multitasking while driving due to the influence of friends doing it as well. Furthermore, teens see this as a convenience for them. This has attended to many inexperienced teens to have never given the thought of the two as a dangerous combination. Moreover, teens are not educated about the dangers of driving while multitasking resulting in distracted driving, the rising incidents of driving under the influence and due to teenagers being naive.
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
Ricks, Dethia. “Teen Text Danger: Deaths and Injuries Among Young Drivers Rising.” Newsday. 09 May. 2013: A.8. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
Statistics display that one out of every five teenagers will be in a motor vehicle crash within two years of receiving their license. However, at age 18, the number of crashes drastically falls because the driver is more composed and mature. Also, 5,000 teenagers died in 2009 alone, this number has to convince Americans that driving is too dangerous for teenagers. Now, a voluntary survey was orchestrated by Edgar Snyder Law Firm that confirms that teenagers are affected by technology. Furthermore, 52% teens admitted to use their phone while driving and 34% of the teens also admitted to test and drive. These stats are alarming because teens aren 't the only people on the road; moreover, regular adults are on the road and are in constant danger of being victim to a bad decision made by a teen driver. Next, bad decisions question a teenager’s maturity level; furthermore, 60% of teen road deaths involve the teen wearing no seatbelt. Now, people may argue that if all teen are forced to attend a seminar on “car essentials” the number of crashes will decrease. This is not true because nothing can replace the actual scenario and the teen’s brain has low impulse reactions as well. Teenagers are young people full of life and many are taken from us because of car crashes and bad