Everyday in our lives, people have to transport themselves from place to place. If you drive yourself to a certain destination, you, of course, have to keep an eye on the road ahead. This is the main source for safety on the road for a person operating a vehicle. But the safety of motorists has significantly decreased due to the evolution of technology. Technology has evolved rapidly over the past 20 years and many people who have motor vehicles have some sort of mobile device they connect to. While these mobile devices are good for communication, many people reduce their safety on the road by communicating with the outside world while they are driving. “Behaviors that are considered distracted driving include eating or drinking, talking with …show more content…
In 2014, 3,179 people were killed, and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers (Facts and Statistics). Many people are over-confident in their abilities to text and drive but the risk is still the same for people who have died in car accidents. Also, many distracted drivers don’t realize how much distance they cover while looking down at their mobile device for a few seconds. “Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded” (Facts and Statistics). Nobody would want to drive on the road at the same time as someone driving over the length of a football field blindfolded. But in reality, that’s what we face each …show more content…
Bonnie Sesolak is an administrator for the National Motorists Association. She believes that having a mobile device is crucial for the road ahead. These days, many people rely on their mobile devices to get themselves from point A to point B. “How about finding yourself in the “wrong part of town?” Pulling over to get directions might not be a good idea. Your cell phone may be your only option” (Sesolak). Maps help us to our destination, but would you rather be next to someone who is on their phone looking up directions or someone who is lost in their direction but is paying full attention to the road? Also, Bonnie explains that people could be faced with possible emergencies while driving a car and having a phone is very important for communication with authorities or family members. “Perhaps there is a medical emergency, an accident, or you encounter a potential life threatening situation while driving” (Sesolak). Being involved in an emergency is very unlikely. There are so many emergencies each day that involves accidents due to distracted driving; the number of emergencies will decrease even more if mobile devices are banned from vehicles. People can have their mobile devices for an emergency, but they should not be used for other communicating purposes. This means
Ever since the invention of the automobile, numerous efforts have been employed to try and improve its safety features. Judging by the current statistics, one could argue that driving has so far turned out to be a risky business. In actual fact, people of all ages and social status are considered to be in control of lethal weapons whenever they have to drive. According to the National Safety Council, it is estimated that more than 41,000 people lose their lives in road accidents annually and no less than 2 million more suffer from serious life threatening injuries (2009). Furthermore, it is estimated that at least 50% of the people killed in road accidents is as a result of their failure to adhere to safety measures such as wearing seatbelts while driving, driving under the influence, or careless driving (Ingalls, “Defensive Driving Strategies”). As an effect, huge losses occur with respect to life, injuries sustained, and damage to property.
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
While driving down the turnpike do you ever see an auto before you that is swerving or accelerating and backing off? At that point you think to yourself, "I would prefer not to take after behind or be in the path right alongside them." So you accelerate, and beyond any doubt enough the driver is utilizing their mobile phone. Actually, I am certain you have. Mobile phone utilization while driving is not just disappointing for different drivers; it is exceptionally perilous to all drivers who are on the road. At the point when a driver is utilizing a mobile phone, it doesn 't make a difference what sort of individual they are, or what their age is, or their sexual orientation, accidents don 't demonstrate any
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
What is a cell phone? When did the cell phone come out? Cell phones are electronic devices used for communicating. Engineer Martin Cooper was the first individual who made the first public cell phone in 1973 (Browning). Later on, the cell phone became the most important tool for our daily life in the modern world. Today society is a cell phone-controlled world, to some degree. Even though it is true that cell phones bring countless conveniences to people, the use of cell phones should be restricted. Despite their advantages as mapping and communication tools, they can cause accidents when used while driving, restrict driver’s attention which can cause safety concerns, and even lead to health problems.
When people hear their phone ding, they immediately have the urge to see what is going on. “Seventy-seven percent of teens say they are more than confident”, and they think they are able to safely text while driving. “Fifty-five percent of young adult drivers say it is really easy to text and drive”(stoptextsstopwrecks.org), and they do not understand why it is such a big problem to do so. Teenagers are not the only ones who take part in the act of texting and driving, many teens have said they see their parents do it. Studies show that “5 seconds is the minimal amount of time your attention is taken away from the road when you 're texting and driving”(DWI:Driving While Intexticated). Say a person is traveling at fifty-five miles per hour, the five seconds they take to look at their phone is equal to driving the length of a football field without looking at the road. If the driver in front of the texter comes to an emergency stop, and they are not paying attention, he or she will have caused an accident because they were paying attention to a phone. Texting while driving causes about 1,600,000 accidents and 330,000 injuries per year. The accidents, injuries, and deaths are all a result of someone feeling the need to take their focus off the road, and place it on seeing what their friend texted
That is equivalent to downing four beers and then getting behind the wheel.”. Texting while driving is considered to be the highest form of distracted driving. In 2002 2,600 people died from distracted drivers and in 2011 3,331 this number has gone up by 22% in the last 9 years. In 2002 drunk driving accidents have killed 12,405 people but by 2011 that number has decreased by 25% to 9,296. This shows that texting while driving is on its way up and may continue to get worse. The National Highway & Transportation Administration (NHTSA) declares that 1.6 millions accents are caused by texting and driving every year, thats almost 25% of all automobile accidents (Masters).We already know that texting increases chance in an accident, well so does dialing by 2.8%. Also so does talking and listening at 1.3% and reaching for your cell phone at 1.4% (Texting). On November 28, 2010 Nina Todd was leaving her mother house with her two sons, when Karli Brown struck her car head on. In result of the accident Nina’s
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).
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.
There is a high percentage of people that spend a majority of their day sitting behind the wheel of a vehicle. Whether it is commuting to work, taking the kids to school, running errands, or simply going out to eat one may feel that their car has become a second home. With so much time spent behind the wheel, drivers become comfortable and incorporate distracting activities while trying to remain focused on the road. Our inability to put our cell phones away while driving is inexcusable. Drivers who choose to use mobile devices are endangering people’s lives and property with associated risks that are not acceptable. No one distracted driver is better than the next. Do to rising accidents
According to The National Safety Council (NSC) using cell phones when driving will cause about 1.6 million crashes per year, and from those crashed about 330,000 injuries from distracted drivers (Texting and Driving Accident Statistics, n.d.). Teens and adults have started using their cell phones more and more. Cell phones are a great piece of technology, but the longer we have used them the more we have found that they can cause many negative things. Cell phones don’t just answer calls and respond to texts, but they can cause us to lose social skills, can cause brain cancer, and it causes a lot of distracted drivers. To begin, cell phones cause us to lose social skills.
In today’s society, texting and driving have become an issue. Many teens and adults, have formed a habit of using their cell phones while driving. Texting while driving can be very distracting, which can cause many accidents to happen. In trying to prevent this, new laws have been passed, making the use of cell phones while operating a car, illegal. However, too many people do not respect this law. People should stop getting distracted while driving because texting while driving is taking people’s attention on the road, accidents are getting higher and is comparable to drunk driving.
The use of technology makes our daily tasks easier, such as a better sense of direction while driving via a GPS, safety features in our cars such as Auto Drive and Auto Park. 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). He proves that there are a lot of in car technologies in today’s society that can demand our full attention without us even knowing, and can lead to tremendous consequences that can become dangerous distractions on the road. Satellite navigation (GPS) makes our lives easier because it can give us the correct directions to a desired address. This is unlike the past where the navigationally challenged would consider it a nightmare to drive to a new location.
Over the last few decades, the use of cell phones has become a very common tool. Furthermore, Technology has certainly advanced, and the cell phone is becoming the most preferred mode of communication. The demand for a cell phone is growing every day. In addition, the use of wireless technology is affordable, and anyone can buy a cell phone at a reasonable price. They come in all shapes and sizes. They range from black to bright metallic white. American public use of cell phones is increasing everyday. As the number of people using cell phones increase, the use of cell phones while driving will also increase on our streets and highways. At the same rate, motorists still converse on cell phones and write text messages while driving. Motorist will also engage in other activities apart from driving. For example, drivers will text when driving, and they will dial numbers. Drivers will receive calls and converse with the recipient for long periods. Again, driving demands your full attention, and your concentration needed when talking on the phone. However, it means that the driver has to divert his attention to the conversation, which leads to less concentration on the road. On the contrary, one can therefore connect motorist’s accidents and cell phone usage while driving.
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...