Across the globe family and friends are losing their loved ones to fatal texting and driving accidents. These days, many strive to be connected with the world and their friends by using mobile devices. The problem is that numerous people tend to do so at bad times. For example, while one is driving, it is common to look down at the cell phone to send a short text message that could put their lives in harm. Across the nation, numerous advertising and support groups are spreading the word to encourage society to put phones down and focus on driving instead of texting. However, it really hasn’t stopped. There needs to be a significant change and with the way technology is advancing, there is an immediate, attainable action that can be accomplished. Even though texting and driving is against the law, men and women of all ages are doing it on a regular basis. Statistically speaking, 23% of car accidents, which was about 1.3 million, involved cell phones in 2011 (“Texting and Driving..”). According to Edgar Snyder and Associates Law Firm out of Western Pennsylvania, “In 2011, 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 people were injured in accidents involving a distracted driver.” Along with those stats, and according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, “texting and driving kills 11 teens each day” (“Texting and Cell Phone..”). These numbers show how fatally dangerous texting and driving can be. As mentioned earlier, it is illegal, so humans shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. However, if someone gets caught, they could be looking at a ticket costing about, 135 dollars, not including the additional base fine, surcharge and the law library fee (“Texting and Driving, Challenges..”). If a person chooses to text and drive and... ... middle of paper ... ... many precious lives away and has injured many more. Making cell phones the new car keys would dramatically take away any chance of a person being able to text and drive. This would cause those devastating texting and driving car accident statistics to hopefully disappear. Enforcing this won’t just help the problem, but it will force the roads to be safer for all drivers. Ironically, allowing the phone to be the key, is the key to ending the problem of texting and driving. Works Cited "Chargers." : Accessories. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. "Texting & Cell Phone Use While Driving Statistics." Edgarsnyder.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014. "Texting And Driving, Challenges Of Enforcement." CBS Minnesota. N.p., 26 Sept. 2011. Web. 8 Jan. 2014. "Texting and Driving Statistics." Texting and Driving Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
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
Hanson, David J. “ Alcohol and Texting while driving problems and solutions,” Web. April 4, 2014.
“It’s the number one killer of teens” (Clark, 2013). A war is waging on throughout the streets of America. Everyday people risk their lives by driving. The enemy? Texting while driving. It is the act of composing, sending, or reading text messages while behind the wheels of a running vehicle. Driving under this influence is extremely careless and dangerous to others and is likely to cause accidents resulting in injuries or deaths. This problem is on the rise because the only ones with the power to make an impact against ending this war are law makers and law enforcement. The truth of the matter is law officials are losing the battle against people sending text messages while driving a car on the road. Law officials are mulling over the situation at hand, not doing enough to fight against the selfish crime. The laws regarding texting and driving are not fierce enough and law enforcement does not successfully apprehend the issue amongst drivers. “A Triple A study that found 9 out of 10 of its Arizona members want a texting and driving ban, but for the last 6 years, state lawmakers have rejected the bans” (Monier, 2013). Citizens desire more protection against this selfless crime, and more needs to be done. Law officials need to create laws regarding texting and driving including harsh penalties that would prove effective and then strictly enforce those laws on the streets because it is their sworn oath and duty to protect the citizens they represent from this unhandled danger.
This is also why I think they should just ban all use of cell phones. “13% of drivers age 18-20 involved in car wrecks admitted to texting or talking on the phone at the time of the crash. 34% of teens say they have texted while behind the wheel of the car, 82% of Americans age 16-17 own a cell phone. 52% say they have talked on the phone while driving.” (Texting ad driving Blog) These numbers could be reduced if we applied the changes I have stated to the
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
Phones are a helpful electronic device that allows people to get in contact with family, friends and colleagues at any time. Cell phones allow communication from almost anywhere you are and can help save time by allowing you to use it while doing something else, but what most people aren’t thinking about is how much of a distraction their phones are. People now days are so easily distracted by their phones that accidents happen very often. And it’s not just people walking into others or car crashes, but subway and train accidents also. In California, 2008 a train crashed and killed 25 people due to the engineer being distracted by his cell phone, texting. In 2009 a trolley rear-ended another trolley when the driver was texting. In fact it is
Texting and driving is a deadly issue in today 's generation. Using our cellphones while driving is a damaging habit among teens and adults. This habit caused many catastrophic accidents and deaths. Texting while driving has made the roads unsafe for other drivers. Many states recognize the immense threat resulting from texting and driving and have placed a ban on this epidemic. While many people realize texting and driving is hazardous others believe that the ban is useless and not strong enough of a solution.
While I was driving to my house the other day I received a text message. Instantly I grabbed it and answered at the same time I was driving. For just a second I distracted myself to see the cellphone instead of paying attention to the road. When I looked again at the road I realized that I had just passed a stop sign without noticing! Why are we so obsessed with cellphones? Why can’t we wait to answer? The problem that I would like to address is the addiction to mobile devices and communication. The inappropriate use of these devices causes accidents since they easily distracts you from the road and even though it makes you closer with the ones that are away, it also takes you away from the ones that are close to you. The solution that I give to this problem is to create a law in the state of Florida that prohibits and penalizes the use of cellphones without hands free and texting while you are driving.
Teens are dangerously addicted to their cell phones and even when they need to put them down and not use them for ten minutes while they drive, some cannot do it. This is scary and makes us wonder what the future will hold for us. However, right now we must take the proper steps to prevent everyone from texting and driving because nobody wants the horrifying news that someone they love has passed away because of a piece of technology that is supposed to be helping us, not hurting
"Texting While Driving Dangerous Statistics Pending Legislation - Text Messaging and Car Accidents Traffic." Texting While Driving Dangerous Statistics Pending Legislation. Pica Design, LLC. Web. 17 Mar. 2012. .
Texting while driving as a significant risk factor for highway accidents. Nowadays, more and more people are accustomed to texting while driving, however, it’s easy for them to distract themselves. Therefore, there are numerous traffic accidents in the world. There is a microblog about traffic accidents. As far as I’m concerned, there are numerous methods to stop them from texting while driving. On the one hand, someone is able to turn off his/her friend or family member’s mobile phone and keep the mobile phone until parking. Aside from turning off mobile phone, someone can also help his/her friend or family member tune the mobile phone into airplane mode and keep it until parking. On the other hand, someone is able to install sensor in the car. When the car starts, the mobile phone automatically shuts down;
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.
Texting while driving is a widespread epidemic in the United States that has unfavorable effects on our society.“Driving while texting is the standard wording used for traffic violations” (Bernstein). It causes many people to be distracted which can lead to accidents. “Eighty-nine percent of people own a cell phone” (Gardner). That is a plethora of people that are at risk of texting while driving. Also, texting has increased by ten times in three years(Bernstein). “The risk of a crash for those who are texting is twenty-three point two times greater than those who are not” (Gardner).Driving drunk only makes a person seven times more likely to be in a crash (Bernstein). This means texting while driving is three times more dangerous than driving intoxicated. One in five drivers admits to texting while driving(Gardner). This shows that that texting while driving is a widespread epidemic. When a survey asked teenagers whether they text and drive,“seventy five percent of teens admitted to texting while driving” (7).Distracted driving causes seventy-eight percent of car crashes(Bernstein). “No distraction causes as high of a risk of an accident as texting while driving” (Gardner). Also with these statistics, it is not hard to understand why accidents in teenagers that are driving have risen. The Bluetooth capability in cars gives a driver a hands-free way to talk on the phone, but is still not completely safe (8). Also, only 1 out of 3 US cars sold in 2009 had this feature. New systems are being developed that will use Bluetooth as well a global positioning technology to allow parents to monitor cell phone use and texting while driving (10).
Nowadays majority of the population owns a cell-phone and drives a vehicle. Texting on its own is fine but when combined with a car it increased the risk of an accident. I believe that driving while operating a cell phone is one of the most dangerous things a person. Not only is a person not fully paying attention to the road, the moment they decide to shift their attention to their phones they are running the risk of causing an accident. Many people text and walk and that already is a pretty big issue that often leads to incidents that could have been avoided. While walking around campus I’ve seen many student looking at their phones and walking straight into others. It’s sad to say but mostly every-day I see someone sitting at a red light
Texting and driving is a problem in society. Many mobile technologies are being made to prevent this problem but are not succeeding on helping the problem. Innocent people are killed and injured but texting and driving , but a new technology can prevent this. Car companies and phone/tablet companies should be mandated to create technology that disables phones/tablets once a vehicle is turned on, because it can prevent fatalities due to distracted drivers, texting and driving is banned in most places but people still do it and this can prevent it, and driving requires full attention and this could prevent the temptation to text and drive.