Drivers that text while driving are 4 times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to hurt themselves or someone else. 1. According to a study teenagers are more suseptible to car crashes and fatal road crashes. 2.One of the surprising statistics about texting while driving is that it is more dangerouse than driving under the influence of alcohol or marijuana. C. Considering the distraction of the driver in texting while driving, this activity keeps the driver involved in texting for around five seconds, which on a highway means a hundred yards.
When a teen gets to that age all they think about is driving, but when they turn that age parents just begin to worry. “Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, acknowledged the idea is "a tough sell," but noted that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers” (Irvine). That is a big statistic to ignore. Pennsylvania had 242 deaths which involved a teenage driver in 2008, third among all 50 states behind that of Texas, 650 deaths, and Florida with 516 deaths (California DMV). Teenagers are reckless and we must do everything reasonable to prevent deaths.
While driving, adults and teenagers cannot resist the urge to pick up their cell phone and send a text or respond to one, as soon as the driver’s eyes meet their cellular device; their focus on the road is drawn away. In 2009, 5474 lives were taken and 448,000 people got injured from car accidents from being distracted while driving says the “Outlawing Text Messaging While Driving: Legislators in Several States Respond to Safety Concerns”U.S. News and World Report Article. The lives of innocent people are being taken every day due to a simple distraction. Car crashes are four more times more common to take place while the driver is on their mobile device over any other causes.
Text messaging is a triple threat, requiring visual, manual and cognitive attention from the driver. Not only is the driver not focused on the road ahead, but his/her hands are off the wheel as well. Therefore, people who send text messages are twenty three times more likely to be involved in a crash! (Belakovich). Researchers at Texas A&M University’s Texas Transportation Institute studied the impact of texting in an actual driving environment.
These days texting while driving is being compared to driving while being drunk. In a recent report conducted by CBS News, crashes caused by drivers using cell phones rose from 636,000 in 2003 to 1.6 million in 2008. As a result, many accidents have taken place in the last ten years due to the use of texting while on the road. Texting while driving is being such a target as the biggest distraction. Unlike talking to someone else in the car, speaking on a cell phone demands much greater continuous attention which takes the drivers eyes off of the road at times and their mind from driving.
Distracted driving has become an increasingly immense problem on our nation’s roadways as cell phones have become more common in our day-to-day lives. Cell phone use while driving is the No. 1 distraction behind the wheel. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in 2010, driver distraction was the cause of over 18 percent of all fatal crashes with 3,092 deaths, and crashes resulting in injury with 416,000 people (FCC). According to the National Safety Council, 23 percent of all crashes each year involve cell phone use, resulting in 1.3 million crashes nationally (FCC).
Drivers under 20 years old have the most fatal car crashes that involve distracted driving. Forty two percent of teen drivers that drove within the last 30 days said they had sent a text or were on their phones while driving in 2015 (CDC). Not all states in the United States have laws in place for all drivers banning the use of cellphones while driving. Some states have laws in place just for teen drivers that don’t allow them to text and drive, but adults don’t have laws in place banning them from texting and driving. In June of 2017 only 14 states have a ban on handheld phone use and 42 states banned texting while driving and two other states have only banned texting and driving for new drivers.
The risk of a teen getting into a wreck increases by 44 percent with one teenage passenger and quadruples with 3 or more passengers. When teens get into crashes they are not only putting themselves at risk of injury but also other innocent drivers. Many teenagers are not careful while driving and that is why the number of teens killed in car wrecks are so high. Young teenagers are most of the time not very responsble. They do not pay attention as much as an older driver would and that can cause many crashes.
Research has shown that accidents from texting and driving has actually increased since the bans. “In all 4 of the study states, crashes increased among drivers younger than 25 after the all-driver bans took effect. In California, Louisiana, and Washington, the increases for young drivers were greater than for drivers 25 and older. The largest crash increase of all (12 percent) following enactment of a texting ban was among young drivers in California.” (IIHS.org, para 8.) Where then does this leave lawmakers in combating this issue?
Moreover, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration claims that since establishing the drinking age of 21 in 1975, the number of car fatalities among 18-20 year old drivers in the United States decreased by 13% (SFGate). The medical irresponsibility of allowing teenagers to drink alcohol on a legal basis is also obvious to those who have at least a basic knowledge in biology. Consuming alcohol on a regular basis can negatively affect the development of an individual’s brain’s frontal lobes, which are responsible for emotional regulation, as well as for planning and organization (ProCon.org). Underage individuals who consume alcohol put themselves at more risks of addiction, decreased