The Importance Of Texting While Driving

After days of convincing my mom that I was a responsible adult, I finally had her permission to go out of town for the first time without. This year for Spring Break me and two of my friends decided to go on a trip to visit our friend Steven in Houston. It's a long drive from Laredo to Houston, about 6 hours, but we unknowingly made it an 8 hour long trip.

To investigate the dangers of texting while driving, a true experiment is needed to determine if texting is a cause of traffic accidents. A true experiment is thought to be the most accurate type of experimental research, and it is the only type that can establish a cause and effect relationship. Thus, a true experiment can find if texting is a cause that affects traffic accidents. To begin, the experiment will take place on a major road, located in an urban city because a large number of fatal traffic accidents occur in urban settings, when vehicles are traveling less than thirty miles per hour. Random assignment will be used to select participants, and place them into two equal groups, so the sample size is representative of age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic level. Random assignment helps eliminate bias between tech savvy teenagers and older adults, or the use of technology between different ethnicities, or income levels. The experiment will include a control and experimental group, and the manipulated variable is texting while driving. The control group will be instructed to drive through the mapped out course, without a cell phone present in the car. However, the experimental group will drive through the same course, with cell phones that are receiving text messages. The experimenters will have a camera in the car that helps them collect data from the both groups. Each driver will be evaluated on, the number of times they send a text message, the number of

“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:

Hey, LOL, TTYL, and more are texts that are not worth your life or others as we can can see in the Don't Text and Drive image. This powerful image lacks color and life which conveys the heartache and misery it can bring to one's family. Texting while driving proves to be hazardous in that it is a distraction, causes many accidents, and endangers your life and the lives of others. This monster has no age limit and no gender. Everyone at anytime could be subjected to a terrible accident due to you texting and driving or somebody else not paying attention while they are texting and driving. Texting while driving proves to be an epidemic that negatively affects teens and society as a whole and should be avoided at all costs.

“I hope you brought a phone charger!” Rachel said excitedly as she started up the car. “This is going to be a long drive and I can’t have my phone die, but, at least texting doesn’t use much battery.” George shook his head and plugged the phone charger into the cigarette lighter. “It’s a good thing I’m a great multitasker, even while driving,” stated Rachel. As Rachel pulled out onto a busy road, with her new cell phone in one hand and her other on the steering wheel, George

South Carolina is among the very few states that do not have a statewide ban on texting or cell phone use while driving. There is no hand-held ban or an all cell phone ban in South Carolina. However, all drivers are prohibited to text while driving but the enforcement of this is secondary.

Since the beginning of the smart phone era, humanity has come to build relationships with not only people, but their electronic devices. From talking on their phones and exploring apps, to texting while driving, people cannot seem to put down their smart-devices. According to the passage Introduction to Cell Phones and Driving: At Issue, the average amount of texts people send daily runs from around 40 – 110 (2015). It may not seem like the highest number, but knowing that more than half of those messages are sent while driving makes the matter of texting a lot worse. At this point in time, there have been laws prohibiting texting and driving as well as talking on the phone. Yet, to this day, those laws are null and void; regardless, the talking and texting while driving never stops. Although this phenomenon happens daily and causes many minor and major accidents, the probability of seizing this behavior is little to none.

Hey, LOL, TTYL, and more are texts that are not worth your life or others as we can can see in the Don't Text and Drive image. This powerful image lacks color and life which conveys the heartache and misery it can bring to one's family. Texting while driving proves to be hazardous in that it is a distraction, causes many accidents, and endangers your life and the lives of others. This monster has no age limit and no gender. Everyone at anytime could be subjected to a terrible accident due to you texting and driving or somebody else not paying attention while they are texting and driving. Texting while driving proves to be an epidemic that negatively affects teens and society as a whole and should be avoided at all costs.

According to Winfrey, how is texting while driving similar to driving while drunk? How is it different?

In the state of Florida, does not do enough to avert distracted driving. In October 2013, Florida passed its own law, which banned texting while driving, and with some exceptions. In October 2013, Florida established its own law, which banned texting behind the wheel, along few exceptions. In order to allow officers to pull over a driver for violating the texting ban, the driver has to have two offenses– primary and secondary enforcement acts. This means that drivers must be texting while driving, and committing some other traffic violation, such as speeding or running a red light. I believe that there should be a law for the state of Florida because more and more Floridians keeps losing their lives, by the cause of using cellphones behind

Currently, there is a law regarding the use of devices while driving in the Commonwealth of Virginia. According to the state agency, Department of Motor Vehicles drivers under the age of 18 years old are outright banned from using cell phones or any sort of personal communication devices while driving. In fact texting is banned for all drivers. In Virginia, it is considered a primary offense, meaning the police can pull you over if they suspect you of texting while driving. The first time this happens the fine is $125 and $250 for offenses thereafter. A website titled “Virginia Decoded” shows the use of devices while driving specifically defined as:

Is it really important to send that text or check that email while you are driving? Since 2013, texting while driving has been a threat to every driver on the road through the United States. Charles Moore says in “Texting While Driving Is More Dangerous than Driving under the Influence” that texters’ reaction times deteriorate by 35%, and their steering ability decreases by 91%. In 2010, about 4,000 people died from cell phone distraction related crashes. Most of these crashes were related to teens. In 2009 American Life Project published a report that focused on teens and distracted driving. This report showed that 75% of teens own a cell phone, and of those, 34% admit to texting while driving, 48% say they were a passenger of a car when a driver was texting.

There are many dangers when both drinking while driving and texting while driving. In this essay the two will be compared and contrasted to find why people do them even with the dangerous consequences. Drivers think they can text while driving and also drink while driving because they think they can get away with it because nothing has affected them in the past while doing it. Michael Austin states, “Texting, also known as SMS (for short message service), is on the rise, up from 9.8 billion messages a month in December ’05 to 110.4 billion in December ’08”. What does it mean to all drivers to text and drive,

Texting while driving has become a major concern worldwide due to its highly probable fatal results. Texting while driving can be defined as the act of communicating on a mobile communication device via short message services or electronic mails. Since the early years of the 21st century, mobile communication devices have gained wide usage and have almost become the standard mode of communication. Their use has brought undesired concerns. It has been established that a large number of the accidents that occur on roads worldwide is as a result of low or lack of attention by the driver. There have been different campaigns aimed at sensitizing the public on the risks of texting while driving.

Texting while driving is one of the most dangerous forms of distracted driving. Studies conducted by the National Safety Council and The U.S. Department of Transportation have shown that driving while distracted by cell phone use leads to 1.6 million auto accidents each year—causing a half million injuries and approximately 6,000 deaths. The number of accidents caused by cell phone use rise each year and this, unfortunately, leads to a yearly increase in injuries and death. If you are injured in an accident that was caused by someone who was using a cellphone while driving, then you are entitled to be compensated for any damages you may incur.