Driving Vs Distracted Driving

Distracted driving accounted for more than 3,100 deaths in 2013. The U.S. Department of Education has taken several steps to control the number of distracted driving incidents. The organization has held summits and pushed to enforce strict texting and driving laws. Technology manufacturers are starting to get involved in the nation’s effort to save lives. The ComSonics company is currently producing a device that can potentially track a person who is sending texts from a cell phone while driving.

Death among U.S. teens is led by vehicle crashes. In the year of 2013, around 2,163 teens were killed between the ages of 16-10 in the United States. Around 243,243 were treated in emergency departments for injuries that they suffered in motor vehicle accidents. Around 75% of teen drivers suffer in these accidents due to 3 major mistakes. Those major mistakes include a lack of scanning the road, distractions in the vehicle, and also going to fast for the conditions of the road.

Distracted driving is very dangerous to everyone on the road ways.  Distracted driving is engaging in non-driving activities that distracts the driver from the primary task of driving (SIRS).  In 2015, 3,477 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver (CDC).  Each year about 421,000 people are injured in crashes involving a distracted driver (Edgar Snyder).   Drivers would not be texting if their message was not very important.   Distracted driving should be illegal and security devices in vehicles should be implemented in order to save lives.

I was surprised that driver distraction accounted for so little of the fatalities. Many teenage drivers become very distracted very easily. There are so many distracting things texting, music, and driving with other teenagers in the vehicle. The Driver’s Handbook also says later that 9% of crashes on Utah Highways involving teens are caused by distracted driving. I am surprised that it is so low given what a broad and prominent category “Driver Distraction”

Being the cause of a cell phone related accident can leave a person unable to handle the consequences of their actions. There is great concern regarding the dangers of distracted driving. This is made evident by legislation that has been put in place in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (2011), nationwide, 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam have enacted texting bans. Current data from the National Safety Council (2010) suggest that each year, at least 1.6 million traffic accidents (28% of all crashes) in the United States are caused by drivers talking on cell phones or texting. The U.S. Department of Transportation (2011) states that nine states, the District of Columbia, and

Most teens, and even adults, use their cellphones while they drive. They think a quick text or call won’t hurt while they are at a red light. They call it multitasking, and think that since they have a hand on the wheel they are fine. In the articles “How The Brain Reacts” by Marcel Just and Tim Keller, and “The Science Behind Distracted Driving” by KUTV, Austin they describe how the mind is working in the cellphone situation.

Distracted driving is the number one leading cause to accidents. Whether it be texting, calling, conversing, eating, grooming or reading. The National Safety Council, NSC, says that one in four car accidents are because of cell phones. Initial data from the National Safety Council estimates that as many as 40,000 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2016. That marks a six percent increase over 2015 and a fourteen percent increase over 2014. That is the most dramatic two year escalation in the past fifty three years.

Arizona is one of four states that has yet to put a law against distracted driving into effect. The definition of distracted driving is defined as the practice of driving a motor vehicle while engaged in another activity. 21% of fatal accidents involving a teen driver were caused by distracted driving. Do these statistics confirm that a harsh distracted driving law need to be in effect or should it be a personal responsibility of oneself or the parents of young drivers. As more states create distracted driving laws the number of deaths each year are still rising meaning that these law that are being set are not fixing the issue and are seemingly making it worse. Distracted driving should be a personal responsibility and not a law that needs

Tom Vanderbilt, author of “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About us)” claims that text messaging while driving, or “distracted driving” is comparable to drunk driving in the 1950s. He says “The Science is clear, the laws were becoming clearer, but the culture against drunken driving hadn’t manifested” (Politico). I agree with Vanderbilt; it’s clear that distracted driving puts drivers and passengers at significant risk, yet laws are only now starting to appear concerning the issue, and it’s not yet culturally unacceptable.

Due to the many car crashes from driving while using electronic devices, Oregon issued the Oregon Distracted Driving Law, which took effect in the beginning of October. It prevents the use of electronic devices that require you to take your eyes or hands away from the wheel. However, why did this law have to be made? What events occurred to make the government to even think they need to regulate this?

Distracted driving has been the most recent cause of accidents on the road presently. Of course there are many other reasons why drivers get into accidents, but it is mainly because they get distracted. Police in El Cerrito, California even gave more than 600 citations in April to drivers for distracted driving violations (“El Cerrito”).Also,“nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million injured last year in the U.S. due to drivers being distracted”(“Distracted”).Distracted driving today causes many accidents through the use of technology, eating and drinking, and children in the backseat.

All over the United States people are driving while distracted by one thing or another.

Should Oregon’s distracted driving law be changed? The distracted driving law for Oregon is that a driver cannot use a hand-held device while driving. However a hands-free device may be used if you are over the age of eighteen. The law aims to reduce distractions for drivers. It specifically prohibits cell phones to talk or text. The brain can only handle one major task at a time. If there are more than one task the brain will have to divert the attention from one to the other causing them to not focus on the other task. In the case of driving while texting they will be paying more attention to their phone than the road and can cause serious accidents. Driving while using a cell phone reduces the brain activity focused on driving by 37%.

Imagine you’re on your way to work and you get a text message from a friend or family member. Although you know that it is wrong to check while you are driving, you still check it anyways because you have done it plenty of times and got away with it. Then you look back up and realize that you are on the other side of the road and there is a car heading your way. You swerve back into your lane just in time to miss the incoming car and you realize how those three seconds could have completely changed your life. This is an experience many young and older distracted drivers have at least once in their lives. Now if you are wondering what are the risks that comes with distracted driving, what is the hype surrounding this social problem, and want learn how problem can be solved, you have come to the right place. Throughout this paper I will introduce to you what distracted driving is. Following that I will reveal the claim makers and their strategies to gain awareness about distracted driving. After that I will give the proposed solutions including direct cost, indirect cost, and the money estimated money needed carry out these costs. Finally, I will reveal what I have learned about this problem

Virtually anyone who has a driver’s license has been introduced to the idea that distracted driving causes accidents. However, the consequences of distracted driving are far more than just predictable and often taken lightly. Predictable events can be avoided. Since these are predictable events they are preventable. The choices that drivers make affect more people than they may realize, thus making them responsible for the consequences that result from those choices. On a daily basis more than 15 American deaths and another 1,200 injuries are attributed to drivers that are distracted while driving on the very roads most of us use every day (Harvard Men’s Health Watch, page 7). Distractions can be