I am in firm belief that prohibiting the use of cell phone (or any texting devices) while driving would be make the drivers and streets safer and or more aware. There are numerous reasons why texting and driving should be prohibited. For starters, human beings have a limited processing capacity. Processing capacity could be seen as a tank, while the water that fills the tank can be seen as tasks. Now how much water that is poured into this processing capacity tank are determined by whether they are high or low loaded tasks. A low loaded task would leave the tank with plenty of available room for other tasks while high loaded task would fill the majority of the tank up. Driving a car would be defined as a high loaded task, due to that driving a car takes a lot of cognitive processing. Including, at minimal both covert and overt attention combined with feature searching, visual searching, visual scanning is involved in the basic task load of driving a car. Figure in the low load task of texting into the filling of the processing capacity tank, the tank begins to overflow. What this means that something from the high loaded task must give up to make room, such as overt attention. When an individual is driving …show more content…
This argument is false. When you are talking listening to music and or you friend who is riding shot gun your overt attention is still focused upon the road ahead of you. Overt attention is defined by Dr. Bruce Goldstein as the “shifting of attention by moving the eyes.” This elucidates the explain of the process capacity tank being filled with different low and high loaded tasks. Talking to friend and driving may or may not overflow the capacity of the tank, but it does not remove one of the key point of attention, more specifically attention the road and the visual scanning that
Traveling at 55 mph, while looking down at a phone for just five seconds, the car will have traveled the length of a whole football field (textinganddrivingsafety.com). So much can happen in 100 yards, and five second is the minimum time of eyes being off of the road. Texting while driving is not that much different from driving with your eyes closed, and no one would ever do that. Texting while driving makes it 23x more likely to be in a crash (textinganddrivingsafety.com). A law banning texting and driving would result in more concentrated drivers and less distracted driving accidents. A law is necessary to keep all drivers and passengers
Furthermore, ‘texting in cars and trucks causes over 3,000 deaths and 330,000 injuries per year as stated by a Harvard Center for risk study’ (Hanson n.p.). Just imagine all the lives that could be saved from deaths or injuries if people stop texting while driving because it is a major distraction for them. There belief is that they can multitask, but the sad reality is that the brain cannot do that. The brain has to focus in a particular task at a time. In order to do things right or correctly. Pennings a highway patrol helped demonstrate teens that texting while driving is a dangerous action. He made several so called “ Professional Texters” pass several obstacles while answering text messages and the results were not pleasing at all, cones were flying. The questions asked were not hard, yet they still manage to make the driver lose focus from driving. This is why implementing a rigorous law would come in handy. People will reconsider the thought of many things while being in their vehicles such as texting,eating and drinking, watching videos, putting makeup or grooming, etc. The states have not yet implemented a good law they only prohibit it during school zones or if a police officer sees you, but that is not enough.
Imagine you are driving down the road on the way to take your child to his first
Another reason why texting and driving should be forbidding is that there are many lives at risk. Debate.org (year) also discusses how many drivers feel that texting while driving is easy to do. It is disappointing knowing that drivers are not putting their safety first based off that opposing argument. According to Why Do We Still Text and Drive, an article by Cassie Shortsleeve (year), texting is a compulsive behavior. Instead of waiting to respond to a text until we are in a safe environment, we as human beings are so fascinated by information that we give into the temptation to respond to a text as soon as we receive one. Although we live in an era were texting is extremely popular, it should be illegal while driving.
Texting and driving should be illegal in all fifty states because of the catastrophic affects it has had on our country. It has become just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than drunk driving. It kills thousands of people and injures hundreds of thousands annually. Whether people think they can shoot a text safely or they just aren’t aware of the dangers, it needs to come to a complete stop. To do this, laws need to be in place for any and all kinds of cellphone usage; adults, teenagers, elders, and bus drivers should be banned from picking up their phone while operating a vehicle. Consequences should also be in place for those who do not abide by them. No text is worth your life or anyone else’s.
One out four car crashes are caused by texting and driving. It has been proven that 94% of all teens acknowledge and agree that texting and driving is a very dangerous thing. However 32% admit to doing it anyway. www.edgarsnyder.com states, “660,000 drivers are attempting to use their phones while behind the wheel of an automobile.” This is an outrageously large number of people. This number needs to be reduced. “In a split second you could ruin your future, injure or kill others, and tear a hole in the heart of everyone who loves you. -50 reasons not to text and drive-”. Texting and driving should not be permitted on the road.
The people on the other side of the coin think that texting while driving should not be banned because eating and driving or listening to radio can impair the driver as much as texting and driving do to a driver (Friedeman N. Pag). Also, many argue a law against texting would be difficult to enforce because it is hard to check if people are hiding their texts or not, just like some people do in class! Another counterpoint would be that people think it is
Get rid of the distraction. Sometimes this is possible to get rid of distractions, but the law can’t stop someone from talking to a passenger in the car or eating and drinking. Schools and training can only do so much to prevent distracted driving and almost half of those drivers ignored what is being told to them about the facts and warnings about the dangers of texting and driving. Nationwide only 44 states have banned drivers from texting and driving. These states are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado. Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, MIchigan, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. These states also have penalties and the maximum goes from a low 25 dollars to a high 10,000 dollars.
A common question that has come forward due to the increase in our society being very technically involved, is should cell phone use be banned for all ages while driving? The cell phone use while driving has become a growing epidemic in all ages. Distracted driving causes about eighty percent of all motor vehicle accidents. The growing youth has become the prime candidates for this problem being that another eighty percent of people ages 16-20 admit to texting while driving knowing how bad it is. The worst part is that it is no secret with these given statistics that using your phone while driving is deadly, so why is it we keep doing it? The only way to stop this growing epidemic is to ban using your phone while driving.
Using a cell phone while driving, whether to talk or text can be a distraction. Many states, including Tennessee have banned texting while driving according to the American Economic Journal, “vehicular fatality data from across the United States and standard difference-in-differences techniques, bans appear moderately successful at reducing single-vehicle, single-occupant accidents if bans are universally applied and enforced as a primary offense” (Abouk & Scott 2013). Therefore, making texting while driving illegal, is not reducing car related crashes contributed to
Some say banning cellphones use while driving will not be enforceable because drivers do all sorts of other things that cause distracted driving- eating, kids, music etc. - (Froetscher, NYTE). Some say distracted driving is less dangerous than it seems or that it’s perfectly fine, however through research and evidence this can not possibly be true “particularly texting, that seems to be a really hazardous activity, much more dangerous than talking on the phone, raising to a level that exceeds what we see with someone who is drunk driving, ” (Austin 139,140).
Today in our world, technology is running our generation. People are using their phones in the wrong areas, they were not made to be distractions and cause wrecks to be taken. A lot of people today do not realize is about 40 percent of the wrecks that occur in the world have to do with taking their eyes off of the road for too long. Measures need to be taken to decrease the number of wrecks per year. Although people believe texting and driving should not be finable, people do not realize the injuries/ deaths involved, what the distraction on the road can cause, and enforcement also includes a behavior change.
What do you think about texting and driving? I think that texting and driving should stop. Texting and driving can be very hurtful to the people around you. Taking your eyes off the road for 5 seconds can really travel a distance, in 5 seconds you have traveled a football field, that time there wasn’t an obstacle in your way, next time there will be. This is a problem that needs to be stopped.
Driving in general can be hazardous. Driving and having such a distraction as a cell phone at ear, or ringing somewhere in a car, is ten times more dangerous. Not surprisingly, drivers who use a cell phone while driving perceive cell phone use by others as less of a threat to their safety as do non-users. A huge number of accidents caused by talking on a cell phone. During the last 5 years texting has become insanely popular. It’s a great and convenient tool because people don’t have to call person to just say ‘ok’ on that dinner invitation. The worst part is that many people still think that texting while driving just that ‘ok’ is ok. Unfortunately, even with traffic police enforcing those ‘no cellphone’ laws, individuals still neglect those simple safety concerns. People need to start understanding themselves how dangerous it is.
Lastly, cell phone use while driving should be banned because it can become dangerous for oneself as well as others on the road. Not only does cell phone use for drivers endanger other people, it endangers the life of the operator itself. Drivers can run off the road into trees, ditches, or poles; they may also run into other cars or drift into oncoming traffic. Using a cell phone while driving also puts other drivers on the road in danger; if a driver is texting, their eyes are on their phone and they may not see the car in front of them stopping, which will lead into a wreck that could injury someone.