While there are many dangers people worry about on the road, many of those dangers include distractions or habits that can be easily stopped and crashes related to those distractions could be stopped if the habits were broken. The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year, and 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. 1.9 million injuries and crashes could be avoided if cell phone use and habits were stopped or cracked down on. There are different types of distracted driving including visual, cognitive, and manual, cell phone use includes all three.
Interacting with children and other persons sometimes affects them manually on the road. Then, there is social media which in many cases removes the mind from the road. Today the major distractions while driving can be anything from texting, interacting with people inside or outside the vehicle and posting on social media. Texting while driving is a major discussion today, as it is becoming more popular. Texting and turning focus to the phone while driving can affect the craft of safe driving.
I. Why banning the use of cell phones while driving should be mandatory nationwide. A. To convince the public why cell phones should be banned while driving. B. To show the dangers and results of distracted driving. C. Distracted driving is any activity that takes away a person’s attention from driving.
Each year, drivers who use cell phones cause 1.6 million car accidents and nearly 330,000 injuries. Considering that cell phones are one of the greatest items to happen, it make stuff easier to accomplish without having to do much effort, communicating with anyone around the world, but there should be a limit when it could endanger other people’s lives. It is not only the phones that drivers are distracted by, it is also foods, drinks, conversing, and listening to loud music. Someone can lose their life due to a simple act such as texting and taking a selfie while driving. There are numerous cases that involve a person getting hurt or worse, killed, thanks to a driver being distracted.
1. According to Edgar Snyder and Associations in 2017, 10% of the ages 15-19 were involved in a fatal crash at the time of the crash. a. Snyder also explains that teens are 4x more likely to be involved in a crash that is from texting and driving. B. Texting while driving is caused by a number of factors. 1.
Distracted driving is composed of actions such as texting, talking on the phone, eating and drinking, etc. Distracted driving is costly to society because it is incredibly dangerous, costs large sums of money, and can cause good people to become criminalized. Distracted driving is costly to society because it is incredibly dangerous. For example, in the United States alone, over 3,000 people are killed and 400,000 people are injured annually due to accidents involving distracted driving (No Author Listed, 2017).
There are many distractions while driving, especially for new drivers on the road. Not only are there people walking or jogging from place to place, but there is wildlife bounding across the road, along with the radio playing the latest pop music and passengers chatting away in the back seat. According to the Policy Genius (2016) article, people who text are “up to twenty-three percent more likely to get into a car crash than other drivers,” and continues with saying the “National Safety Council estimated that almost 350,000 automobile crashes involved someone texting” (page1). Newly licensed drivers are limited on the number of people they can have in the car with them. Distracting people in the car versus texting and driving can be compared, but the incidence of texting and driving is definitely on the higher scale.
A distracted driver is a dangerous driver. Ever noticed that when your eyes are not on the road, the driver cannot drive straight. The driver have to look up every once in a while to check if the car in front of the block, if there are any obstacles up ahead, and to see the hurdle . That might think this one is obvious, but it may be quite a lot of drivers pulling out their smartphones to check on their Facebook page, and to see if anyone likes to take pictures of themselves on their own. Heck, we 've seen drivers with Ipad and tablet coming out, on the steering wheel as they make their way around the corner.
Drunk driving seems to be a black spot of our civilization. An average of 17,000 individuals die each year in drunk driving related accidents, and drunk driving continues to be an enormously important public safety issue (MADD). With lowering this drinking age we can only expect more cases of drunk driving and more lives are put in danger. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that about 900 lives are saved annually due to fewer alcohol-related traffic crashes involving underage drivers. Surely, it should be a priority for the society to minimize the death toll from drunk driving.
Car accidents are the number one killer of teenagers in America and most of these deaths are caused by either texting while driving or in a phone call while driving. In making it illegal to operate a cell phone while driving in an attempt to decreased the number of accidents, because driving while distracted can be just as dangerous if not more dangerous than driving drunk. All across Fair Fax County Virginia you can find crossed placed on street corners where people have died due to car accidents caused by distracted driving and the main cause of distracted driving is operating a cell phone while driving. So in an attempt to cut down on these tragic accidents Virginia made it illegal to drive while operating a cell
A highly effective approach to the problem of distracted driving is to make its penalties as severe as DUI penalties. This dangerous driving behavior, which has become a national pandemic, refers to objects or activities (either internal or external) that cause a diversion in the driver’s attention. As a result, the driver switches focus to a non-driving activity—such as using a cellphone, eating a meal, or looking at a billboard. The current fine imposed by the State of California for using electronic devices behind the wheel is only $20, the lowest in the country, for a first-time offense (Bundy and Raja,1). Contrast that with a first-time DUI offender who faces a six-month jail time and a heavy fine of up to $3,000.
When one thinks of a public health issue, often times individuals immediately think of topics revolving around certain diseases or areas of health that are difficult to counteract such as obesity, smoking, or eating healthy. However, public health issues not only involve areas that affect the biological side of ones health, but also the overall well being of others lives, including life and death. These lives are not affected directly due to specific genetics or actions caused by other biological affects but due to the physical actions and habits of others and ones self. This is recognized in the public health issue of distracted driving, specifically texting and driving. Through the increased concern of texting and driving, individuals are