Cell Phone Use While Driving, Essay Example

Users are increasingly using cell phones currently. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that around 800,000 drivers use their cell phone every day (NHTSA, 2004). Cell phones are a huge distraction to drivers, as well as others who are near the driver being distracted, due to the attention being taken away from the driver. Like changing a stereo, who would want to be distracted by averting their eyes towards their phone? Texting and the conversations that take place on the cell phone cause accidents, and these two certainly represent the main causes. Any use of cell phones should be prohibited due to the dangers it causes to the driver and drivers around the one being distracted.

The use of cell phones while driving is dangerous. Fatal accidents have and will continue to occur with cell phones. There are clearly enough distractions on the road that one must be cautious of, so to handle an automobile safely, such as other automobiles, pedestrians, animals, signage, and many others. The added weights that cell phones convey, in terms of usage and stimuli, are too much for any driver on the road. Cell phone stimuli create an unsafe environment for the driver and those around. From a January 2010 report from the National Safety Council, 28% of car crashes (1.6 million accidents) are caused by cell phone conversations and texting (III, 2010).

Cell phones can delay reaction times, especially those that are hand-held. Other cars and pedestrians become targets when one’s reflexes are undermined with the cell phone. Research demonstrates a reduction of brain activity by 37% (Nationwide, 2009). Thus, a driver’s ability to concentrate is severely undermined with regards to a cell phone conversation or other distraction posed by the cell phone.  According to the NHTSA, 5,780 deaths and 515,00 personal injuries have been caused by driver distractions (III, 2010).

A conversation, albeit with a passenger or by cell phone, draws the attention of the driver away from the road to a degree. Additionally, the driver may not be able to hear surrounding sounds while driving, which is important in many cases, such as sounds from emergency vehicles. Studies have been performed on the comparisons between the danger of cell phone use and normal conversations with a passenger while driving. While there is some literature that has documented the risk of passenger conversations while driving, there are studies that demonstrate the increased danger with cell phone use in comparison. A University of Utah (Drews, 2004) simulation confirms the increased risk of cell phone conversations to passenger conversations.  In these and other experiments, drivers are less distracted while talking to passengers than they are when speaking to someone on a cell phone.  This literature confirms the dangerous status of cell phone use while driving, as it is evident that cell phone conversations are more dangerous than those with a passenger.

Other considerations add onto the distractions. As not all drivers use hands-free capabilities while speaking on the road, this incurs a level of danger.  One less hand is not conducive for safe driving.  When multitasking drivers who use a cell phone couple this use with something else, such as eating or writing down a note, driving safety is further compromised and compounded. As of March 2010, seven states have passed laws requiring hands-free devices when one uses a cell phone while driving. Banned are cell phones while driving in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Utah and Washington, plus Washington, D.C and the Virgin Islands (GHSA, 2010). An offender may not have to incur of a traffic offense to be able to be cited for cell phone use while driving. Novice drivers are not able to use a cell phone when driving in twenty-three states. Bus drivers are not able to use the phone on a bus when passengers are present for seventeen states and the District of Columbia (GHSA, 2010).

As one might imagine, driving with the cell phone is made even more unsafe when the act of texting is considered. Texting truly undermines the safety of drivers, even more than that of normal cell phone use on the road. Twenty one states and the District of Columbia ban text messaging for all drivers. In fifteen of these states, and the District of Columbia, this is a primary enforcement. States also display bans for texting, only for drivers (GHSA, 2010). While a number of states have banned texting while driving, further measures are needed.  Universal laws should be imposed with stricter consequences.  As texting may become a more main stream of communication as opposed to oral conversation, texting may become more dangerous than normal cell phone usage. Knowing that cell phone usage should be prohibited while driving based on earlier stats, it becomes evident and urgent to ban texting while driving. While there is limited testing on the subject, research has demonstrated increased danger with texting while driving.  An unreleased study from the University of Utah saw accidents related to texting increase six times (Livadas, 2007). Further studies have demonstrated increased risk in auto accidents from texting, even as text messaging rose in the late 2000s as attention increased. 200,000 accidents are listed by a source from drivers texting while they are driving on their cell phones (III, 2010).

Research has also demonstrated a higher risk of impairment with cell phone use while driving than alcohol use.  This finding is quite shocking.  Intoxicated drivers are not legally permitted to drive automobiles; any equal or higher risk to it should be very revealing. The University of Utah Psychology department studied this in 2003.  The findings demonstrated, and the study concluded, that cell phone use was more impairing than driving intoxicated (Strayer, 2003).  From these results, cell phone use while driving is more dangerous than drunk driving.

Cell phone use while driving is simply not safe. Cell phone usage places a number of limitations on the driver of an automobile, and it has been demonstrated in terms of reaction time, stimuli, and other factors that contribute to its inherent danger. Prohibiting cell phone use is the most important way to help make the roads a safer place. Prohibiting cell phone use will help to eliminate the current dangers posed by driving while talking on the cell phone. Furthermore, more uniform and stronger measures should be implemented against texting, which should go above and beyond the ramifications of driving while talking on a cell phone. Eliminating talking on the cell phone and texting would inevitable produce safer roads and less traffic accidents.  Educating drivers about the dangers of cell phone use while driving can help lessen these dangers. There are enough dangers and distractions on the road today to allow cell phone usage to threaten safe roads.

References

Drews, Frank; Monisha Pasupathi and David L. Strayer (2004). “Passenger and Cell-Phone Conversations in Simulated Driving” (PDF). Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th Annual Meeting.

Livadas, Greg (July 14, 2007). “Text Messaging Not Illegal but Data Clear on Its Peril”. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070714/NEWS01/707140333&template=printart. Retrieved 2010-04-06

Strayer, David; Frank Drews and Dennis Crouch. (2003). “Fatal Distraction? A Comparison of the Cell-Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver” (PDF). University of Utah Department of Psychology.

GHSA, . (2010). Cell Phone and Texting Laws. Retrieved Apr. 10, 2010, from Governors Highway Safety Association, Washington, DC. Web site: http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html.

III, . (2010). Cellphones and Driving. Retrieved Apr. 10, 2010, from Insurance Information Institute, New York, NY. Web site: http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/cellphones/.

Nationwide, . (2009). Driving While Distracted: Statistics You Need to Know. Retrieved Apr. 10,2010, from Nationwide, Columbus, OH. Web site: http://www.nationwide.com/newsroom/dwd-facts-figures.jsp.

NHTSA, . (2004). Cell Phone Use on the Roads in 2002. Retrieved Apr. 10, 2010, from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, DC. Web site: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809580.PDF.

DOT, . (2009). Distracted Driving Summit. Retrieved Apr. 10, 2010, from Department of Transportation, Washington, DC. Web site: http://www.distraction.gov/files/take-action/summit-agenda.pdf.