On average, drivers spend more than half their time driving engaged in distractive behavior. Most of the drivers on the road, about 94%, would agree that sending e-mails or text messages while driving is not acceptable and about 87% of drivers support laws against reading, typing or send text messages or e-mails while driving. But unfortunately in this day in age, multi-tasking is simply just a fact of life; everyone will face constant demand for their time, and will feel the need to juggle more things at once now than ever before. And the bad part of that is people try to multi-task while driving, and that is never a good idea (AAA foundation). Another concern in many different communities around the United States is the distracted teen driver, not just the adult.
The study found people who texted while they drove also had a dramatic decrease in their ability to control their steering wheel. In fact, the study found texters had a ninety-one percent decrease in their ability to control the direction of their car. Texting while driving has shown an increase in risk of serious injury. Statistics show the motor vehicle death rate of teens caused by cell phones is 21 percent and rising by 4 percent a year. Texting while driving increases your chances of crashing by 20 times.
Copeland said, “The lives of innocent people are being taken every day due to a simple distraction”. According to the National Safety Council, there are 1600000 car accidents per year and, 11 teen’s death per day every day are caused by drivers distracted by texting while driving, and . This number adds up to nearly 25% of all car accidents. Also, according to some studies, in 2011, at least 23% of auto collisions in 2011 involved cell phones, which is adds up to almost 1.3 million car accidents. Car accidents are four times more likely to result from take place from drivers being distracted by texting than other causes.
Those talking on either handheld or hands-free cell phones are driving slightly more slowly, they are 9 percent slower to hit the brakes when necessary, also showed 24 percent more variation in following distance and 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking. Everybody may be familiar with the situation, when you are stuck in a two lane road, and the car in front of you is moving 20 miles less then the speed limit. It is driving you crazy, you barely hold yourself from pressing the horn (may be the slow driver is a senior citizen, and one day will all be there), finally when you get an opportunity and pass the obstacle, you find out that the imaginary senior citizen was actually a young woman, usually “blond”, chattering on the cell, innocently having no clue of what is going on around her. The situation makes a negative impact on your nervous system, and decreasing the number of the nerve cells in your body. We all know that nerve cells are nonrecoverable.
“Traffic deaths from drunken driving have fallen steadily, with those involving teenagers 16 to 19 declining by 39.1 percent from 1982 to 1990, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)”. (Clark, 1992). Even though drinking and driving is a crime thousands of teens continue to get behind the wheel and kill thousands of innocent people in alcohol related crashes every year. There are drunken accidents because teens don’t take drinking and driving seriously. Teens just want to feel the pleasure and they want to feel good but don’t think about the other people or even there selves that they can kill on the road.
Evidence Research: * I have found that 1.6 million auto accidents per year, which is equal to 28%, are caused by cell phone use and texting and driving. * Also, another scary thought is that texting and driving is equivalent to a driver who has had 4 beers and then started to drive. E. Conclusion I propose that a state ban of texting and driving will alleviate most of the accidents that are happening now days due to this major distraction that only requires a driver’s eye for 5 seconds. In those five seconds, if traveling at 55 MPH, a driver can go the distance of a football field (Bowers, 2014) and can cause a horrific accident. It has been stated in research, that 1.6 million of auto accidents are caused by cell phone us and texting, which is 28% (Pascual-Ferrá, Liu, & Beatty, Meta-Analytic Comparison of the Effects of Text Messaging to Substance-Induced Impairment on Driving Performance, 2012), as well as texting and driving is equivalent to someone who has drank 4 beers, (Bowers, 2014) or someone who has decided to get high off of some kind of illegal drug, and then decided to get behind the wheel and drive.
Carly Roberts Ms. Strickland English 10 AE 4 April 2013 Driving While Intexticated Text messaging has become the dominating force of communication across the country. American teens send and receive an average of 3,300 text messages per month, that’s more than six texts every hour they are awake (Lazar)! However, the problem is not the amount of text messages delivered or received. Texting while driving is a growing problem that plagues a large percentage of the population. The risks of texting while driving are often unrealized, because it has not stopped drivers from sending a “quick” text from behind the wheel.
What possesses a person to get behind the wheel and drive while drunk? This question is always asked whenever a drunk driver is involved in a drinking and driving incident. Driving is a privilege given to responsible people and not a right; it should be taken seriously because there are always going to be lives at risk when driving. Most people enjoy a drink from time to time and that’s not so much of a problem, the problem is when they get drunk and lose control. If you consider driving then the problem gets even worse.
MADD was supported by those individuals who had suffered the loss of a loved one due to a drunk driver and wanted a safer future. The goal of the program initially was to lower drunk driving traffic deaths and because of this organization there has been a high number of people that disapprove of others that drive while intoxicated. There is a dramatic drop in alcohol related deaths much due to the efforts of the MADD organization (Canada Safety Council 2003). The most significant problem in lowering drunk driving deaths consists of the most drastic alcoholic drivers who continuously drive with high concentration of alcohol in their blood stream. A Social Problem In America alone people take about two hundred and thirty three trips in cars each year, of all these, one out of two thousand of these trips are being taken by drunk or drugged individuals.
Although we have educated and preached to our children about drinking and driving, the statistics in 2001 showed an estimated 2.8 million college students drove under the influence. That’s half a million more than in 1998. An alarming statistic from Mothers Against Drunk Driving is that more college under-graduates will die from alcohol related causes than will receive a masters or doctorate degree. Another statistic, one I found sickening and very upsetting was,” During a typical weekend, an average of one teenager dies each hour in a car crash. Nearly fifty percent of those crashes involved alcohol” (MADD).