Imagine you have one hand on the steering wheel and the other pinning your phone to the wheel trying to see your phone and the road at the same time. Many people are guilty of trying to multitask like this on a daily basis. Imagine yourself as the driver of this vehicle. You merge onto another freeway, and your phone buzzes alerting you of a text message. You glance down for what seems like ½ a second and before you can swerve away from the truck pulled over on the side of the freeway BOOM you have hit the man standing outside of his truck killing him on impact. Was that text more important than a life? Could that text have waited until you’ve reached your destination? According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, texting or reading a text typically takes about 4.6 seconds. If you’re driving 65 mph that equates to driving the length of a football field blindfolded. The previous scenario has happened on multiple occasions in different cities and states of America claiming lives. Now more than ever, texting while driving is a serious problem however, there are laws to prevent texting and driving. In addition, there are alternatives that may help save a life and ultimately make us think twice before texting and driving. Statistics don’t lie. Texting and driving is a hazard to not only the person texting but everyone around them as well. The popularity of mobile devices has had some unintended and even dangerous consequences. It is estimated that at least 23% of all
Texting while driving puts everyone in danger because it takes your attention away from the task of driving. According to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in 2015 there were 3,477 deaths and another 391,000 injuries caused by distracted driving in the United States, and that’s just in one year. While this
Texting while driving puts many driver’s lives in danger daily. Multiple people feel that staying connected to the outside world is more important than focusing on the road ahead, although it is not. It can harm others on the road who are doing nothing other than trying to make it to their destination safely. If people would open their eyes to the dangers of texting while driving, less car accidents would take place every year and the roads would be much safer. Distracted drivers need to know the position they put others in as well as themselves. While behind the wheel, drivers should never direct their attention to their cell phone, and should always keep their eyes on the road.
A lot of risks are taken by texting and driving, but the most important risk a driver takes while texting is either life or death. When it comes to texting and
Automobile crashes as a result of texting while driving is an epidemic that has taken over the nation in the past years. In today’s society, people have become more and more dependent on technology as everyday uses. How many can honestly say that they have text and driven? How many have had to swerve, stop on the brakes or almost gotten into an accident because of it? Texting while driving is the most common thing that almost everyone has done or seen. The main issue and threat is that people think they can safely type on their phone while driving; while others simply do not think there is any real danger with that act. Today, it is all about convenience; but the cost for this convenience can be very deadly. Studies show that any
“Text messaging … had the longest duration of eyes-off-road time of 4.6 seconds at a six second interval. This equates to a driver traveling the length of a football field at 55 miles per hour without looking at the roadway.” This statement was made by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute when they did a texting while driving study (“Skip Menu”). Texting while driving has become a large problem in the United States and it is growing. There are about 1,600,000 accidents per year as a result of texting while driving. Texting while driving has become a bigger problem for teenagers than drinking while intoxicated. In an article Delthia Ricks wrote for Newsday, she says:
According to texting and driving statistics, every year, around 330,000 people die every year from texting and driving. This is around half of all the people who pick up their phones in the first place. Being on your phone draws your attention from the road, to your phone. Doisomething.org states, “When you text and drive you are 23 times more likely to get into a crash.” All it takes is a simple act of not watching the road. Being unaware while driving can put you, and other's lives at risk or injury or even death. This can affect your future, others around you, your friends, and your family. Texting and driving is a very big deal. Don't Text Drive states “5 seconds is the minimal amount of time a driver takes their eyes off the road. If you are traveling at 55 miles an hour, this would equal the length of a football field of not
Texting and driving is the cause many accidents, in 2016 there were nearly 123,131 car crashes with 37,461 of them causing fatality. People need to understand the dangers of texting while driving. Texting and driving is dangerous to all motorists.
Safe driving is really important in the world today. Texting while driving can lead to a lot of things. First, if a person drive while texting they could run over someone and possibly kill them because their eyes wasn’t on the road. The person could go to jail for years just because they wasn’t paying attention to the road. Second, if a person drive while texting they can hit someone car
Many people admit to texting while driving on a daily basis. Mostly everyone has either received, read, or responded to a text in their lifetime. In 2014, there were 3,179 people killed in an accident involving texting. (“The dangers of texting while driving”) Multiple people have died due to texting while driving or someone who was texting while driving. In the past 10 years texting while driving has been getting out of hand. Texting while driving should be illegal in every state because it can cause a fatal accident, texting while driving is getting worse every year, and it can take the life of an innocent person.
Drivers may think they can multitask while driving but that can cause others to be hurt in a matter of seconds when people look away from the road to check a phone. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administer reports that there are three types of driving distractions, which are visual, cognitive, and manual. The article “Distraction” discloses “To put it another way, a distraction is anything that takes your eyes off the road (visual distraction), your mind off the road (cognitive distraction), or your hands off the wheel (manual distraction).” These three distractions are very common when texting while driving because they require drivers to take away their attention from the road in order to respond to the text message. Drivers need to have one hand off the wheel when texting, which takes away from the manual aspect of driving. The visual distraction of driving are things that take the driver’s focus and eyes off the road, even for a split second which happens when people look down at their phones. Cognitive distractions keep their mind from focusing on the road during driving because their mind is on the text message. It does not take long to crash once a person takes their eyes off the road. According to the Daily Editorials article The Solution for Texting and Driving it references “At highway speeds, when you take your eyes off the road for five seconds your car travels more than
This paper will also mention real life experiences with people who have either been the victim or the cause of an accident in which texting while driving was the reason for it. I end my paper with a section in which the purpose of it is to question yourself and others as to if texting while driving is really worth the risk of potentially killing a person or even a whole family. Conclusively, I want a discussion to arise in the future from this paper pertaining to new ideas or innovations that could potentially diminish or even relinquish casualties and damages, both emotional and physical, resulting from texting and driving.
Texting and driving is very dangerous. Many people get injured from texting and driving. Like a girl named Hillary Coltharp. She was the reason why she had a accident. She was texting and didn’t pay attention to where she was going, and went off road. She blamed it on her phone because she wasn’t paying attention to the road. If she wasn’t on her phone she would have never had a accident.
Imagine driving down the road texting, not looking at the road unaware of your surroundings. All of a sudden the car is flipping around, once the car has settled you realize that you have hit an oncoming car from swerving in and out of the lanes. The other victim was killed instantly by contact, and you have major injuries from what you can see. Finally, when police arrive on scene they ask to question you about the accident, and you tell them you were texting while driving. You are further charged with manslaughter because the oncoming driver was dead on contact. Studies show that texting while driving is the leading factor in 1.6 million accidents every year, which is about 25 percent of all driving accidents (Bowers, 2014). To put that in perspective, studies have shown that five seconds is the minimal amount of your attention is taken away from the road when texting (Bowers, 2014).
The average time it takes to read a text message is five seconds. At a velocity of 55 mph, that’s enough time to travel the interval of a full football field. The typical person may not realize it, but one out of every four accidents in the U.S. is caused by texting while driving (“Cell Phone”). Likewise, that is about half the percentage of accidents kindled by drunk driving. Driving preoccupied is injurious; furthermore, adding texting into the equation yields the greatest amount of accidents. One text could alternate a person’s entire life, or worse, cease their life. The danger of texting while driving is an outlandish issue that can be diminished by prohibiting its use and offering phone-disabling devices in vehicles.
As you may know, every year 200,000 motor vehicle accidents are caused by texting while driving. In my humble opinion; just one accident caused by texting while driving, is one too many. Here are some statistics on cell phone usage according to Pew research center: ninety percent (90%) of American’s own cell phones, sixty-seven percent (67%) of cell phone users say they check their phone for notifications even when they don’t ring or vibrate,