Excuses For Distracted Driving

In today’s day and age there are so many excuses for distracted driving. Lives are put at risk every time a distracted motorist is on the road, and deaths have increased by a substantial amount in the last ten years. On Thursday, April 26th, 2014 one woman’s bad judgement cost her life (Hastings, 1). Not only was she effected, but her friends and family assuredly felt a pain in their hearts. In the few seconds it took Courtney Ann Sanford to post a few words on Facebook, it was enough to distract her from the road and to drive across another lane and through a median straight into a Truck (Hastings, 1). She was immediately killed. Shortly before her Facebook post, she was sending selfies to her friends (Hastings, 3). This just goes to show
These sort of programs have shown immense help in the number of fatalities on the road today. Along with these kinds of programs there have been several laws put in place that ban cell phone use while driving. In Syracuse, N.Y. there have been strict laws against handheld cellphone use and texting and driving, and they have been extremely effective (Copeland, 1). Law enforcement saw over 70% of texting driving put to a halt. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood said, “Over half a million people are said to be injured, and thousands more are killed in distracted driving accidents” (Copeland, 1).Another very effective campaign that will probably soon be known world-wide is “Phone in one hand, Ticket in the other”(Copeland, 1). Most people in todays world would be familiar with the “click it or ticket” phrase that has allowed people to be reminded to put on your seat belt. Just as this campaign reminds people to wear a seat belt the “Phone in one hand, Ticket in the other” is designed to remind drivers that it is far too dangerous to be interacting with your phone while driving (Copeland,
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