Cell Phone Use in Vehicles

Cell phone use in vehicles

"Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough, time to cover the length of a football field." (2009, VTTI) As we all realize, texting while driving can create chaos in terms of being the future advancement in technological history. Many people thrive for their freedom, but most do not assume that the consequences can sometimes be costly, a little too costly. NHTSA records insist of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashes, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes). This also means that a high risk is made towards driving with cell phones is involved at a higher rate than say a normal car crashes. I personally believe that with the evidence and the proof that can be proven just by these two statistics, one can only come to reality that texting or being on a cell phone can be dangerous.

As most guess, there are a group of people who think there are down sides towards cracking down on having a cell phone out. In a Virginia Tech experiment towards texting while driving, they recorded that only 14 states currently ban texting while driving. Legislators in some states have rejected such rules, while lawmakers in other states say they need more data to determine whether to ban it. Should this study will be the one that gets them moving? I personally believe that there is enough evidence to think that people should be banned from texting while driving. The amount of deaths obviously counts more than another person's wishes, and usually are the victims of the cause. Yet according to the NHTSA, about 21% out of the people who believe that texting and driving should be banned, they do it on a regular basis. To me I believe that some emergencies where you actually need your cell phone is unavoidable, but I use mine with caution and feel if you use it on a regular basis and don't use it responsibly then you should be banned from using it, or driving for that matter.

22% of teens who drive while distracted say it makes driving less boring. (2010, AAA and Seventeen Magazine) I personally fell that driving is a privilege and should be treated as such. Teens across the country need to be aware of the multi-tasking and thrill of texting while driving, or simply enjoy driving in general. If whoever is trying to reach you really needs you then that person would leave a voicemail.