7/13/12 In the United States distracted driving is cause to more than 8,000 automobile accidents a day. The drivers that are most likely to be offenders to this are the youngest and the most inexperienced on the road. Out of the drivers involved in the accidents caused by distractions 16% of them are under the age of 20. So what are these driver distractions you may ask, they include texting, usage of a cell phone or smart phone, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, self grooming, reading, including maps, usage of a navigation system, watching a video, or adjusting the radio, cd player, or mp3 player. Types of distracted driving varies, there are visual
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). We all know that road rage can be cause due to many reasons like stress at work and problems at home. Ferguson also points out that road rage could be solve if we had more police and tougher punishments (556), but we all know that won’t really help. I don’t even think that therapy for those road rage individuals would help. We all just have to pray every time we get into a car and just have patience.
Rachel Shumate Mrs. Doss English 10 12/5/12 Why People Should Not Drive Drunk Every year 1.5 million people get pulled over for DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). One third of those people are repeat offenders, who even though they got pulled over once, go out and drive drunk again because they have no serious punishments (Curran, 1). Drunk drivers should be imprisoned on the first offense because they are endangering the lives of the other people around them. People who are arrested for DWIs are commonly known repeat offenders. About 1.5 million people get arrested for DUI (Driving under the Influence) each year (DeMichele, 1).
“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.
Many states began passing legislation either in response to fatal crashes involving texting while driving, or near fatal crashes that involved texting while driving. By the early part of 2010, 21 states had banned texting while driving. De Soto provides numerous statistics that compare drunk driving to texting. The studies were used showed that texting while driving is just as dangerous to public safety as drunk driving. De Soto list several fatal and non-fatal accidents cases from New York to Washington State from texting while driving.
There is a countless amount of accidents, injuries, and deaths due to distracted driving per year. Distracted driving does not only include texting or drinking, there are multiple factors that play a role in the issue. Playing your music too loud, eating while driving, or even having one too many friends in the car with you are just a few of the other factors. Too many families and friends are grieving over the loss of their loved ones because of these simple things that can be prevented. A mother, Kim Schlau, in Leawood, Kansas describes the tragic loss of her two daughters due to a police officer who was using his cell phone and computer when he collided into them at 126 miles per hour.
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. Laws should be changed or enacted to prevent senseless accidents, and unnecessary deaths. About five thousand people die annually texting while driving.3 Three-hundred thousand people are hospitalized for injuries obtained from accidents cause by phone use in the vehicle.4 Again no state in the U.S. completely bans all cellular phone use in the vehicle for all age groups.1 Without firm, enforced laws or probations regarding phone use in vehicles this issue will continue to grow worse. 1. 2012, Texting And Distracted Driving Infograaphic, retrieved on 2014, January 27, from:
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.
“More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year—about 4.65 a day—as a result of alcohol-related injuries” (The Marin Institute). With a number as high as this, lowering the drinking age would only increase this ongoing problem of underage drinking. It has even been proven by the Marin Institute to be the leading cause of death among teenagers. Many adults feel as if the 18 to 21 age groups cannot handle drinking responsibly, then they should not be permitted to use it. Alcohol is a very serious depressant and one of the leading problems for death (Hanson, 2007).
Does banning cell phone use while driving decrease the accident rate? Nowadays almost everyone has a cell phone. It is very common to see drivers talking on the phone while they are commuting to work, school or just everyday errands. Studies have shown that using a cellphone while driving can be just as dangerous driving while impaired . Many accidents occur due to cell phone use because the majority of people are not able to do it safely (2009).