Car accidents have become the most common way for teens to die all due to distractions. There are many reasons on why a driver could be distracted including changing the radio, talking to passengers, eating, drinking, being sleepy and using a cellphone. Most teens today have cell phones, which is the biggest distraction. You may be walking down the hall and feel your phone vibrate, so you pull it out and respond to the text you received. While responding to the text, you bump into somebody and quickly apologize before getting on your way again. If the exact same thing were to happen while you were driving, you may not have the chance to say sorry. You could’ve just killed somebody or be the one dead. Sorry can’t undo anything. Acting responsible …show more content…
According to “” using a phone while driving is the second-leading cause of deaths that occurs in a vehicle(). Driving and talking or texting on the phone decreases our ability to control the vehicle properly and effectively. In fact, text messaging creates a crash risk twenty three times worse than driving while not distracted, according to “U.S. government distraction.gov site.” If you send one text while driving, you are taking your eyes off the road for at least 4.6 seconds. If a car were going 55 miles per hour, that’s like driving the length of a football field. Another big distraction that teens have is passengers. Although having a passenger is safer than using your phone while driving, it can still distract a driver in many ways. Multitasking is quite a challenge which is why many people can’t keep an eye on the road, speedometer, upcoming signs and traffic while holding a conversation. According to “” one in every fifty drivers have the skills to multitask while driving safely. Not all teens are ready to handle the responsibilities of driving when they turn sixteen. The more experience prior to driving with friends, the more prepared you are to handle these …show more content…
People have always told me the consequences of being a distracted driver but, I never took the time to think that something like this could actually happen to me or affect me. When I was fifteen and becoming a licensed driver, my friends got in a car wreck. The driver was texting and was also under the influence. One of my friends was in the passenger seat and the other was in the back seat. When they started to roll the car, one girl was ejected from the car out the window and rolled over by the car. It was found that the driver had moved her which caused her to die because of her broken neck. The other girl was also ejected from the car, she was thrown fifty feet from a car going 120 miles per hour. However, she lived. As she was in a coma for three months, many things happened to her brain and her body. She woke up from this coma paralyzed from the neck down. The driver however did not get hurt at all. The guilt he has to live with knowing he killed one girl and made another intellectually disabled and physically incapable of doing things is sickening. Because of his mistakes and distractions of his phone in the car, he has to spend 15 years in prison. So next time you’re in the car remember all the things that could happen just by taking your eyes off the road for a few
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
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated about 9 people die every day in the U.S. due to a distracted driver. A distracted driver is someone who while driving, is being engaged in other activities such as texting, eating, and talking to the passenger. There are three different types of distractions while driving; visual distractions, manual distractions, and cognitive distractions. These types of distractions are very dangerous while driving and there are many things that can be done to prevent or control these distractions.
Texting and driving involves all three types so you can predict the outcome isn’t too much in our favor (Distracted Driving, 2015). According to the National Safety Council (NDC), the big myth today is that people are capable of multitasking, and even worse multitask while driving, but in fact, the human brain cannot do such a thing. People may be walking and chewing gum at the same time, but that is because those actions involve both a thinking task, and a non-thinking task. Driving and talking on the phone at the same time is risky though because it requires both to be used. Instead of attending to both actions simultaneously, the brain quickly shifts between two cognitive activities (The Great Multitasking, 2010). Taken from a new report from the NSC ,drivers that tend to talk on cell phones often enter a state of what is called “inattention blindness” and when this occurs, they may fail to see up to 50 percent of what is ahead of them (NSC Looks Inside, 2010). The United States Department of Transportation says, "text messaging while driving creates a crash risk 23 times higher than driving while not distracted,” (Distracted Driving, 2015). That makes driving
I rear ended a car due to the action of distracted driving. Distractions while driving can include anything from the use of social media on a cellular phone, messing with a navigation system, brushing one's hair, speaking to the passengers, or eating a big mac. In my situation, I was toying with the music in my car. I was dissatisfied with the current song so I decided to switch it up. I was at a stoplight so at the time I thought it would be okay for me to change the song. But within the timespan of a blink of an eye, my foot went off the brake and I rear-ended the car in front of me. I was following the car way too closely so by the time I realized my foot had wavered I already made a mark on the car ahead of me. I wanted to fist bump to
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% ...
Imagining yourself being in a car crash can be a very scary thought. Just a small glance at the clock, the rearview mirror, or even the passenger sitting next to you, could cause you to go flying into destruction. What would you do if you were involved in a car crash? Imagine opening your eyes to see a person stuck in a car opposite of yours. Not only do you see the starting of a fire but the faint smell of gasoline lingers in the air. What would you do? Driving can be very dangerous especially for teens due to their inexperience in driving, low maturity level, and the numerous distractions that occur. The behavior of teens should be monitored to help keep them safe.
The driver who was at fault during the collision was the one that was going faster than the other car, which it makes both of them crash against each other. The reason why, was because the other car who was at
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
One of the dangers of texting while driving at the same time is the attention it takes away from the road. A driver, who is focused on looking at their phone, is not paying enough attention to other cars or what is happening around them. Something as simple as a car stopping in front of them can cause serious damage to the driver and to the other car. “Texting” while driving is the act of composing, sending, or reading text messages, email, or making other similar use of the internet on a mobile device while operating a motor vehicle, such as an automobile, truck, or train (Reuters). Many people and authorities have viewed it as a dangerous practice. It is on occasion like this, where familiarity with the road and surrounding will not make it easier for the driver to look at their cell phone. The probabilities of drivers texting on the cell phone and getting into accidents are only getting higher. Cell phone use while driving accounts for a major cause of
Teenagers don’t want to be inconvenient with having to wait to respond to their friends about the latest party or school event that’s coming up. Driving is just as good of time as any to text their best friends about the upcoming weekend or update their Facebook status in the mind of a young adult. Even though most teens know they shouldn’t text and drive many are guilty of doing it several times a day. An overwhelming 75% of teens even admit to text messaging while driving (“Distracted Driving,” 2016). Young drivers are more likely to get into an accident due to lack of experience than that of any other driver on the road. Add in texting to the mix it is a recipe for disaster. About 54% of teenage motor vehicle crash deaths occur on Friday, Saturday or Sunday – with Saturday being the deadliest day of the week for teens (Hosansky, 2012). Teenage motor vehicle fatalities are at the highest in the summer months.
Texting while driving is referred to as distracted driving. "Distracted driving continues to be the number one leading cause of car accidents in America. Talking on the phone, texting, eating, reading, grooming, and talking are just some of the ways drivers get distracted behind the wheel. Drivers who use a hand-held device are 4 times more likely to get into a car accident than drivers that pay attention to the road ahead. Individuals who text message while driving are 23 times more likely to get into an accident. Do not risk your safety or your life. Put everything down and pay attention to the road ahead. It is the single most important thing you can do today to reduce your risk of getting into a
While driving you must be aware of yourself and other drivers. Young drivers often don’t think of the consequences of texting and driving, going over the speed limit, or drinking before driving. Teens think irrationally, they believe nothing will happen to them if they break these rules. For example, in the article, “Is 16 Too Young To Drive a Car?”
There were no injuries other than herself and the car she was driving. Her vision was failing due to her being diabetic. She did not have the perception she needed to gauge where the cars were. At this point, the family never replaced her car and she never drove again.
“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.
I was lucky enough to walk away from the crash with some minor burns and backache, being otherwise unhurt. I was later told that the she spent over a week in the hospital with her injuries. Additionally, she lost her license and was charged with two DUIs pertaining to prescription Percocet. In arguing for driving safety, I tend not to differentiate between this kind of impairment and distracted driving (such as texting) because they are both conscious decisions. Just as some of my friends choose to text while driving, the driver of the other vehicle chose to drive under the influence of a prescription drug.