Even those Bluetooth headsets raise the potential risk of an accident. Even though a person’s hands may be free of the cellular device, he or she is still being distracted by the conversation. Cell phone usage while driving causes 2,500 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year. People who drive while talking on a cell phone raise the risk of an accident or death. Recent studies show that a person driving while talking on a cell phone has less awareness of the road than a person who is driving drunk.
“Incidents of “road rage” were up 51% in the first half of the decade, according to a report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety,” writes Andrew Ferguson in Road Rage (553). It’s sad that due to road rage many innocent commuters suffer the consequences. It has also happened to me while driving; because I’m driving to slow, the person behind me starts to blow the horn. And, it makes thing worse because then I will get mad and drive even slower. In Road Rage, Ferguson points out that in a recent survey that the Coalition for Consumer Health and Safety did, 64% of the people mentioned that they are driving less mannerly and more recklessly than they did about five years ago (553).
Your conversation can wait put the phone away. Many states have laws and probations but not one completely bans all cellphone use for all age groups.1 All phone use in a vehicle is responsible for unnecessary accidents, not just texting. About twenty eight percent of accidents are linked to phone use in the vehicle.2 When just over a quarter of accidents are caused by such carelessness I think it’s time to do something about the root problem. Texting drivers spend about ten percent of their driving time outside their lane.1 All phone use is responsible and should be banned not just texting. Approximately 1.4 million accidents occur during phone conversations and two hundred thousand from texting.3 Texting drivers may be as impaired as a driver who is legally drunk.
The Nationwide Insurance survey in 2007 showed approximately 73 percent of those drivers with cell phones used them while driving (Sundeen). With the distractions that people have while driving adding cell phone use just increases the chance for accidents. The 2006 State Legislative Update acknowledges that cell phone use while driving can be dangerous, and the risk for accidents high. In 1997 a research study was done by Redelmeier and Tibshirani and
Putting not only their lives in danger, but oncoming traffic as well that may be carrying valuable contents like children in the vehicle. According to AAA foundations for traffic safety there are the following facts about distracted driving. Drivers spend more than half their time behind the wheel engaged in distracted behavior. More than 8,000 crashes a day are caused by distracted driving, the use of a cell phone while driving quadruples the risk of an accident occurring. 87% of drivers (including myself), agree with laws put into place against reading, typing, or texting while driving behind the wheel.
For example, some people don’t have car and medical insurance when they get into serious car accidents. This can make a person very stressful and need to pay the debts for a long time. These problems can lead a person to suicide. In addition, teenagers and adults should be careful on using cell phones while driving. If they are careful with it, car accidents will decrease and there will be no financial problems.
Are Cellphones Dangerous? Are Cellphones Dangerous? Ryan Borrett ITT Tech - Tempe Are Cellphones Dangerous? Five seconds…That’s the average time your eyes are off the road while texting and driving. If you were traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field while blindfolded!
It has become hopeful that with such bans, new drivers and minors will put away cell phones and maintain their attention to the road. A new proposal for the US Government may make it illegal to talk or text on a cell phone will driving anywhere in the US. This proposal will include hands free phone operation, since the government concluded that any kind of distracted driving may lead to fatal consequences. From the cell phone provider standpoint,
There is another reason to prohibit using the cell in car is distracting people from driving. In this day there are more than 1.35 billion mobile phones, and in some countries more than half of the population own these devices. In the united states there are more than 224 million people used wireless phone while driving in 2006, when we compared that with approximately 4.3 million in 1990, according to the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. there is a danger associated with driving and using a cell-phone. Even though, people know those affects, they continue to use it.
The use of cell phones poses a danger in two ways. First, cell phone conversations while driving distract drivers, and generate safety hazards; secondly, drivers take their eyes off the road. In the United States over 236 million people subscribe to wireless communication devices such as cellular phones, PDA’s, and global positioning systems as of May 2007, compared with approximately 4.3 million in 1990, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. Increased use of cell phones has led to a rise in the number of people who use the devices while driving. There are two dangers associated with driving and cell phone use, including text messaging.