The Use of Cell Phones While Driving is Dangerous

Although cell phones have not been around for a very long time, they have become a key part of our lives. People use their cell phones for just about everything such as: texting, talking, schedule planning, internet surfing, etc. Sometimes we can even do two or more of these things at the same time. Unfortunately, people are also choosing the wrong time to be using their cell phones: while they are driving. As a society, we have become so focused on how much we can do at one time that we are willing to risk our personal safety as well as the safety of others because we can’t put down our cell phones.

Using a handheld cell phone while driving is dangerous to the driver themselves for a couple of good reasons. One such reason is that maneuvering your vehicle while using a cell phone is made even more difficult because one hand is busy fiddling with the phone instead of resting on the wheel. From personal experience, it is harder than most people think to drive or perform driving maneuvers with one hand. Parallel parking is very difficult for most people, even with both hands; doing it one handed would be made impossible because parallel parking requires incredibly subtle movements with the steering wheel. On the main roads, vehicles will often pass you and either slow down or speed up while in front of you which indicates some sort of distraction that hampers their ability to maintain a constant speed. Another reason is that by allowing their focus to waiver during handheld cell phone use, drivers forfeit their ability to react quickly to difficult and/or dangerous situations. Such a situation might be missing an important turn or exit which may require a lot of backtracking depending on whether the driver is in the cit...

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...around the driver if they cannot concentrate on driving.

I believe that handheld cell phones should be made illegal because of the unnecessary dangers they create. While I cannot tell you what you should and should not do, I do hope that based on this paper that you are able to use your better judgment and act responsibly. Hang up and drive because using a cell phone while driving is not worth the risk of taking your own life or someone else’s.

Works Cited

Clark, Scott. “A Close Call – But Don’t Ban Cell Phones In Cars.” Buzzmaven. Buzzmaven Labs, 17 Apr. 2007. Web. 10 June 2010. .

“Distracted Driving: What You Don’t See.” Oprah. Harpo Productions, 15 Jan. 2010. Web. 10 June 2010. .