Phomes and Driving
Essay Preview: Phomes and Driving
Report this essay
“talking on the phone and texting behind the wheel both lead to distraction and driver inattention is the leading cause of car accidents.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts) All drivers should be banned from using their cell phones while driving. While a cell phone is a necessity to the 327.6 million people who own one, behind the wheel is no place to use this mobile device (Number of cellphones exceeds U.S. population). The use of a cell phone consists of talking, texting, and surfing the web which is a dangerous act while driving, which is why all drivers should be banned from using their cell phones while driving. “In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in the U.S. because of accidents that involved distracted driving. Another 448,000 were injured. Of the 5,474 killed because of distracted driving, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a factor. However, the number of fatalities caused by cell phone use could be much higher. For those who were injured, 24,000 involved reports of cell phone use as a distraction.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts)
With talking, texting, and surfing the web, talking on the phone is probably the most famous among moms and business men, however; many other drivers do it as well. “as many as 81% of drivers admit to making phone calls while driving.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts) What these people do not know, is that talking on a cell phone causes nearly 25% of all car accidents (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts). “According to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, drivers talking on cell phones are 18 percent slower to react to brake lights. They also take 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts) “A study of dangerous driver behavior released in January 2007 by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. found that of 1,200 surveyed drivers, 73 percent talk on cell phones while driving.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts) This would mean that more than 7 out of 10 drivers you see while driving are more than likely to be talking on the phone with their concentration not on driving but on their talking. Talking is only one of the dangerous acts while driving; there are still two more out there.
Texting is another dangerous act to do while driving. While driving, your eyes should be on the road to watch for someone suddenly stopping, or a child on the sidewalk who dropped his ball out into the street and decided to bolt out in front of your moving vehicle. If your eyes were on the road, and you were paying attention to driving, you might be able to stop from hitting the car that suddenly stopped or the innocent child that ran out into the street, but if you were texting, this may be near impossible. “For every 6 seconds of drive time, a driver sending or receiving a text message spends 4.6 of those seconds with their eyes off the road. This makes texting the most distracting of all cell phone related tasks.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts) With this task the most distracting, you would think that not many people would do this, but “Almost 50% of all drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 are texting while driving. One-fifth of experienced adult drivers in the United States send text messages while driving.” (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts) A 2007 survey found that 19 percent of motorists say they text message while driving (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts). With 19 percent of motorists texting and driving, you can see how accidents occur with this many people doing it, and the time that their eyes are off of the road. A different survey concluded that over 1/3 of drivers (37%) have sent or received text messages while driving, and 18% said that they do it regularly (Cell Phone Accident Statistics and Texting While Driving Facts). The results of people that sent texts regularly are very close, and this survey actually helps us realize that even if someone does not do it regularly, 37 percent of people who do drive have sent a text while driving. This task is not even the final thing that people do while driving.