Ban on the Usage of Cell Phone while Driving

Nearly 6,000 people are killed connecting to the outcome of cell phone use while driving, according to Edmunds.com (7). Texting and talking on the phone throughout the time that a person is driving can have deadly consequences, but people still don’t seem to want to give up risking their life. There are many issues that can happen while on the road related to the usage of cell phones. It is important to stop people from looking at their phones while driving, because it is extremely distracting and not safe. Even hands free devices are not as safe as they seem to be. There have to be consequences for people using their cell phones while driving in order to improve the people’s safety. According to Edmunds.com, cell phones are known as distractions everywhere in the world and have created several concerns to several countries (9).

C. Central idea: Today, Cell phones are vital for everyone. The use of phones while driving are harming the life of so many families; there are accidents every day because of the ignorance of using the phones while driving. People have to learn and realize the consequences and take the responsibility behind the steering wheel. The law is the most powerful tool that we have to stop the hazardous and ignorance of using phones while driving.

Kratsas stated that according to the National Safety Council’s Annual injury and fatality report, 26% of the accident in the United States are caused by the use of cellphones. Using cellphones while driving has been a chronic problem in America. The U.S. government of transportation have been trying to make laws that forbid using cellphones behind the wheel. According to an article by Marino, “10 states plus D.C prohibit all drivers from using handheld cellphones, 32 states and D.C. prohibit novice drivers from cell phone use, and 30 states plus D.C. prohibit all drivers from text messaging.” Even though there are laws that forbid

Across the country, most states have laws prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving. Research shows that cell phone use while driving significantly

Despite an effective way of communication, using cell phones during driving results in the distracted attention of driver increasing road safety concerns.

The use of the cell phones while driving has been noted to be a cause of several accidents within many states and have been found responsible for more accidents that those caused by drunk-driving in some states. Due to this, many states have now legislated several laws that are geared towards ensuring that the safety of the passengers and pedestrians are equally secured by banning the use of cell phones while driving.

2. According to a cross over study conducted by McEvoy in 2005, a driver's use of a cell phone up to 10 min before a crash is associated with a fourfold increased likelihood of crashing, and risk is raised irrespective of whether a hands-free device is used. An observational study by Wilson, Fang, & Wiggins in 2003 shows thatcompared to drivers who do not use cell phones, drivers talking on cell phones miss twice as many traffic signals, are more likely to swerve into the next lane (46%), tailgate (23%), have close calls (18%), and run red lights (10%)

These texting bans prohibit individuals from sending or reading texts, and talking on the phone when operating a motor vehicle (Cheng). The consequences for these actions are expensive fines, license suspension, and possibly even jail time (Cheng). There are 14 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands that prohibit drivers from hand-held cell phone use, according to the National Conference of State Legislature. According to the NCSL, “There is no state that bans all cell phone use for all drivers, but 37 states and D.C. ban all cell phone use for school bus drivers” (NCSL). The text messaging ban is enforced in 46 states, D.C. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands for all drivers, with 2 states that prohibit messaging by teens and 3 states that restrict school bus drivers from texting (NCSL). Studies show that cell phone bans do reduce the cell phone use by driving, but they do not reduce accidents and fatalities (Cheng). A reason for this may be because the bans are causing people to hide their cell phone usage while operating a motor vehicle opposed to not using it at all. This could actually be more dangerous and result in even more casualties. Police cannot observe this hidden usage; therefore, they can only reduce the observed usage (Cheng). According to Cheng, “The effectiveness of bans in reducing accidents is not merely a matter of enforcement, a more complex set of factors is at play and needs to be sorted out if policymakers are to succeed in reducing accidents and fatalities due to distracted driving”

Use of cell phones while driving should be banned in all the places as it causes a lot of distraction, also it can cause some harm to the driver and also the persons or passengers near the driver and this can consequently lead to accidents. These cases are mostly prevalent on the young people. In the most instances, cell phone use while driving has been proven my many researchers as a very dangerous thing to partake (Jane et al 2001). In the recent times, the cases of fatal automobile accidents which are related to use of cell phones use while driving has been on the rise. The greater number of these cases have mostly involved the young people usually the people aged 25 years and below. A study which was carried recently shows that the reaction of a driver who is using a phone reduces dramatically increasing the accident risks and also tying up traffic in general,

Although some may disagree, I agree with the state law that using a handheld cell phone while driving should be illegal because it distracts drivers from focusing on their surroundings, potentially causing a fatal crash. Drivers should be attentive to what's going on in the busy street around them rather than their cell phones. Distracted driving has caused many deaths and injuries according to News Channel 3. Of course there are emergencies in which using a cell phone while driving is necessary but most of the time, the cell phone conversations can wait. Many people will regret ever using their cell phones while driving for there rest of their lives, while others will never receive the opportunity to be remorseful of their actions. While using a cell phone, drivers will be more focused on their conversations and less on the road,

Texting, calling, changing music, shopping, checking social media, watching movies, posting pictures: all of these can now be done on a cell phone. With the prevalent use of cell phones today, many drivers choose to participate in these activities while they are driving. Because distracted driving is responsible for accidents and injuries, many states are banning the use of cell phones while driving. Even though some may argue that the government interferes too much in the private lives of its citizens, drivers should be prohibited from cell phone use while driving because it causes accidents and harm to others as well as one’s self.

Saving lives is the number one motive of avoiding using mobile phones while driving. Research indicates that people are more likely to get involved in an accident, which could potentially lead to death if the act of multitasking, in this case driving and texting is in progress. For instance, in a study that was carried out in a higher institution of learning in a time frame of about 18 months, university students that were making use of a complex driving simulator came up with the conclusion that people who use mobile phones when driving are eight times more likely to encounter a car crash than those who do not (Park, 2017). Other research studies show that about 36 percent of young people have been involved in an almost crash scenario because they or someone close to them was using a cell phone while driving.

Cell phone technology in today’s society has benefited humans as we know it. We humans are more connected to each other than we were before and technology has improved tremendously. Although cell phones have benefited our lives, they are considered dangerous things. Texting, calling, or even using our cell phones while driving makes them a deadly tool to humans. Cell phones should never be used while driving because driving with a distraction puts you and others in danger, plus driving with a cell phone, which could cause accidents, will raise your insurance rates.

Five years ago, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a ban on the use of cellphone which including hands-held and hands-free devices while driving. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association’s update in 2016, talking on a hand-held cellphone while driving is banned in 14 states; Text messaging while driving is banned for all drivers in 46 states. Although there is no regulation on using hands-free devices while driving yet, the company Verizon Wireless is concern whether the behavior is truly risk-free or not? The goal of the report is to examine this potential problem and come up with possible solution.

Other evidence against hands free cell phone use while driving is simply that talking on hands free devices is just as bad as talking on handheld devices in relation to driver performance (Ishigami & Klein, 2009). To determine this, Ishigami and Klein (2009) reviewed the results of several studies that investigated the impacts of handheld and hands free cell phone usage on the detection reaction times of drivers. These studies were: Abdel-Aty (2003), Burns et al. (2002), Consiglio et al. (2003), Haigney et al. (2000), McEvoy et al. (2005), Patten et al. (2004), Redelmeier and Tibshirani (1997), Strayer and Johnson (2001), Strayer, Drews, and Crouch (2006), and Törnros and Boiling (2005, 2006). Consiglio et al. studied the effects of auditory distractions, such as cell phone, by measuring the reaction time of participants using a non-driving, braking task where participants released an accelerator and applied the brakes if a red light were shown. The control group performed the task without auditory stimulation. Strayer and Johnson (2001) examined the effects of phone conversation on reaction time with a computer pursuit tracking