Amanda Clark Research Paper

Several factors contribute to distractive drivers of any age. Cell phones would rate the greatest threat to teen drivers. Incoming calls and text messaging would rate the greatest threat would instantly distract most teens. Any inattention to the road could cause a serious or lethal accident. A few months ago in Casa Grande, AZ an accident involving a teen who was texting lost his life with another passenger seriously injured in the opposing car. “According to the American Automobile Association, almost half of teens admit to texting while driving.” (Distracted Driving 253) Other distractions would include programming global positioning system, smoking, eating, drinking, and applying make-up.

What some teens struggle to understand is if they would avoid the number one problem in teen driving which is distracted driving, a huge amount of lives would be saved. There are many factors that feed into making distracted driving the number one mistake in teen driving. Some factors include, 9 people lose their lives and around 1,000 people are injured in distracted driving crashes each day in the United States, it can hurt your insurance immensely, and parents are unaware of how severe the

Distracted driving poses an immense problem across the United States, and the issue only seems to continue growing. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “In 2015 alone, 3,477 people were killed” in cases involving distracted driving, and of those killed, “teens were the largest age group reported as distracted at the time of fatal crashes” (“Distracted Driving”, n.d.). These terrifying statistics cannot be ignored. Distracted driving is a national epidemic, and unless society addresses the problem properly and efficiently, the risky driving behavior will continue to plague our streets, endangering peoples’ lives and leading to more fatalities.

One way we can reduce these problems is to give law enforcement more means to stop the problem, we need to toughen our state laws to reduce the high number of crashes each year, and teens need good role models and strong drivers education course to teach them of the dangers of distracted driving before they get into the bad habits themselves. that we need to get rid of because every year the death rate of distracted driving goes up. Teens are seeing their parents doing it and they think it's ok when it’s

I was surprised that driver distraction accounted for so little of the fatalities. Many teenage drivers become very distracted very easily. There are so many distracting things texting, music, and driving with other teenagers in the vehicle. The Driver’s Handbook also says later that 9% of crashes on Utah Highways involving teens are caused by distracted driving. I am surprised that it is so low given what a broad and prominent category “Driver Distraction”

Copeland’s article about teen driving claims that teens know the consequences of distracted driving. However, they continue to use their phones and participate in such behaviors. Copeland states that most

According to Ashley Gaddis from Counterpoint, “From 1999 to 2008, nearly fifty-two thousand people were killed in car crashes caused by distracted drivers” (n.pag.). Distracted driving started when technology became mobile and handheld. Many people have died and gotten injured from people not paying attention to the road. This problem has been growing as technology advances. Distracted driving is a big problem and there needs to be stronger penalties and laws in place to deter people from distracted driving.

It was a fine night in 2007 after one teenager was driving five others home from prom when the car just immediately stopped with a huge crash. It was 2 a.m. in the morning while one distracted driver and five teens sitting in the back seat. Whatever it may have been, “the crash was caused by drowsiness or distraction, or both” (Copeland). The driver may have been using their phone to get home without any knowledge of what they were doing. All five of the teenagers were ejected out of the car and one female, Lacey, who was not driving, was killed. Even after the death of Lacey, her parents regret not giving her the information about road rules and distractions. This is many of the stories that may not catch anyone's eye even though it is one of the most commons ways for injuries and deaths.

Distracted driving is one of the fastest growing problems in the United States.   It is starting to be considered as serious as drunk driving based on the dangerous outcomes.  According to the Department of Transportation (2012), “distracted driving was a cause of roughly 450,000 accident-related injuries and nearly 5,500 fatalities in 2009 alone” (para. 1). Drivers who allow themselves to become distracted while driving are not only endangering themselves, but other innocent bystanders.

Distracting driving is a common occurrence with modern day drivers. Due to technological advances making electronics so easy to use on the go, many find themselves spending more time looking at their cell phone or navigation system than they do looking at the road. According to the NHTSA, distracted driving claimed the lives of 3,477 people in 2015 alone. Texting and driving is a common distraction, especially when it comes to the younger generation of drivers. Young drivers are oblivious to the dangers of what seems like such a harmless act. Studies have shown that one 1 in 4 accidents are caused by texting and driving. The number of people injured from distracted drivers in 2015 was 391,000. Over half of the nation’s car accidents are a result of texting and driving. Whereas drinking and driving may kill more people, the leading cause of car accidents is in fact texting and driving.

Everybody knows that young people can do things that are not the most intellectual. Teenagers have many life altering choices during their high school years, which can lead to bad decisions such as driving recklessly, doing drugs, and doing the wrong thing in school. Teenagers can sometimes can be careless with their actions, because they do not think of others before they think about them self. Teenagers can get excited when they finally get their license, but what comes with the freedom of driving comes responsibility. Some students can get distracted while driving.

This fact proves how teens are easily distracted when driving. More than 10,000 teenagers died in Tennessee from speeding in the years from 2005-2008. This proves that teens do have a tendency to speed while driving, let alone this is just one of the 50 states in the U.S (Teen Driver Safety, page 1”). There are many facts about teen driving and all of the facts I have collected just prove my reasons to be more correct than they already are.

Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and young adults. More than 5,000 young people die every year in car crashes and thousands more are injured. Drivers who are 16 years old are more than 20 times as likely to have a crash, as are other drivers. There are two main reasons why teens are at a higher for being in a car crash and lack of driving experience and their tendency to take risks while driving. Teens drive faster and do not control the car as well as more experienced drivers. Their judgment in traffic is often insufficient to avoid a crash. In addition, teens do most of their driving at night, which can be even more difficult. Standard driver's education classes include 30 hours of classroom teaching and 6 hours of behind-the-wheel training. This is not enough time to fully train a new driver. Teen drivers are more like to be influence by peers and other stresses and distractions. This can lead to reckless driving behaviors such as speeding, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and not wearing safety belts. There is no safe amount that you can drink and still drive. Even one drink can influence your driving offences. “Nowadays, drunk driving has become driving while intoxicated, driving while impaired, driving while under the influence, operating while under the influence (impaired, intoxicated, or whatever), and in many

Monica Garske tells the story of Elene Bratton losing her son Jamie fifteen years ago, on April 24, 2002. Angela, Jamie’s aunt, had gotten Jamie in order to hang out, but while driving her phone rang. When she reached to answer it she drove straight into oncoming traffic instead of following her turn. As a result, Jamie later died in the hospital while Angela lived but had serious brain damage. He was only five years old at the time of the accident. This is just one of the many tragic stories that come from distracted driving accidents. It only takes a moment of checking your phone or answering a text to change someone’s life forever. Distracted driving is a prevalent issue because thousands of adults and teens have died and are currently at risk when they do not understand the true dangers of distracted driving.

Despite the similarity in their thinking of using cell phones are dangerous, Bauer and Badger differ in their perspectives about traffic collisions and the role of cell phones in distracted driving. Bauer mentions about the development of cell phones, that made people use their minds on smartphones more than anything else. In his article, he has strongly confirmations to protect his opinion to explain that cell phones are the reason of almost accidents. He gave information via the research about a number of people were injured or died because of accidents, and they were holding devices. The percentage of distracted drivers could shield his quotes from the suspicion of other people like Badger in her Article. While Bauer decided the importance of the role of cell phones in a traffic collision, Badger has chosen that the human behavior is the primary reason affected to accidents. She mentioned more about the behavior of humans when they couldn’t stop themselves looking at their phone when they listen to the ringtone. People could easily lose the concentration on their work. She thinks people could do many different things while driving like using makeup products or eating, talking with other people in cars. And cell phones are just one of many different reasons caused by distracted driving. Although both Bauer and Badger have the same point of view about the danger of using phones while driving, the role of the cell