Cell Phone Usage While Driving

Cell Phone Usage While Driving The cellular phone has brought many services and many different ways of communicating. It has definitely made communication so much easier. However, when it comes to road safety, the cellular phone may be considered a risk especially when text messages and calls are received. On January 11, 2009 I got in a serious accident because of using the cellular phone while I was driving. I was driving to my friend’s house and I just received a text message.I was driving 45 mph in 35 mph zone and texting the same time. As soon as I looked up I passed a stop sign and collided to the car that was in front of me. My car was damaged and my insurance went up. Ever since the introduction of text messages, society has grown aware of the dangerous of texting while driving. Even though all people understand how it affects their life and the other people’s life, they still use their cellular phone.I was reading the Gazette newspaper the other day and accordin g to the national highway traffic administration, 16% of all fatal crashes in 2008 were caused by driver distraction. One of the most obvious things that happen when a driver is texting while driving is that the driver would avert his eyes form the road for around five seconds. This is more than enough time for a person to run in front of the vehicle or for the vehicle in front of you to make a sudden stop or to miss seeing the light change.The Washington Post news paper edition of June12, 2010 talks about a study that was done by University of Utah psychologists using a driving simulator under four different conditions: with no distractions, using a handheld cell phone, talking on a hands-free cell phone, and while intoxicated to the 0. 08 percent blood-alcohol level, 40 participants followed a simulated pace car that braked intermittently. Researchers found that the drivers on cell phones drove more slowly, braked more slowly and were more likely to crash. In fact, the three parti cipants who collided into the pace car were chatting away.None of the drunken drivers crashed. Now laws have been enforced to prevent accidents from happening on roadways. States such as California, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Washington D. C. have passed laws that prohibit the use of hand held cell phones while driving. Maryland becomes the seven states to pass the cell phone use while driving. A 2003 Harvard study estimated that cell phone distractions caused 2,600 traffic deaths every year, and 330,000 accidents that result in moderate or severe injuries but Americans have largely ignored that research.Instead, they increasingly use phones, navigation devices and even laptops to turn their cars into mobile offices, chat rooms and entertainment centers, making roads more dangerous to other drivers. District of Columbia require drivers who talk on cell phones to use hands-free devices, but research shows that using headsets can be as dangerous as holding a phone because t he conversation distracts drivers from focusing on the road. Older drivers were slightly less likely to get into accidents than younger drivers; they tend to have a greater following distance.Their reactions are impaired, but they are driving so careful they were less likely to smash into somebody. Also new drives are especially on the top list to have an accident when they use a cell phone while driving. The reasoning for this is that new drivers have less experience in focusing on driving during distractions. Also teen drivers send text messages while driving. Since text messaging involves the hands and the eyes, this is thought to be more distracting and dangerous than when drivers use a cell phone while driving only for speaking and listening.Now days most of the new cars has phones that is already built in the car and using that is would be dangerous as picking up the phone and dialing. Overall, if drivers feel they cannot use a handless device or if they are easily distracted on the road by their conversation, then they should not be driving, because they are a danger to others on the road. Also if they need to talk or text they should pull up to the side and finish their business before they get back to the road and driving. Cell Phone Usage While Driving It's an even greater challenge if I don't have my eating glasses on I never wear them while driving. It takes two hands to type. My 20-something children can do it one handed, rarely looking at the keyboard. The light changes. I'm almost finished. â€Å"Hurry, Hurry,† I tell my self, pulling into the intersection while pressing â€Å"send†. Boone. L. (2009, August 10). Cell phone usage while driving should be banned completely in the US do to all hazards it creates on a daily basis on US roads.As a professional driver (truck driver) he sees it everyday, drivers with a cell phone in hand testing while driving, or on the phone talking to someone, completely unaware of their surroundings, swerving, slowing down, ten, twenty, and even thirty miles an hour from the posted speed limit, not thinking for one second the dangerous situation that they are putting themselves and others in.He doesn't understand how can drivers despite of all the advertising campaigns on television, radio, billboards, newspapers, and magazines, drivers still go a head and use that cell phone while driving. But one of the worst thing he sees on a daily basis, is the people that are supposed to be enforcing this laws (the cops) are the first to be breaking them. Just every cop he sees driving on the road is talking on the cell phone. Wright, like they say â€Å"lead by example†.Just the other day while driving on the highway as he was approaching an off ramp, he looks to the right and see a car with a young woman driving and a baby in the rear seat, she is on the phone, not looking to the left for one second to check the on coming traffic, and Just as she is at the point were the off ramp meets the highways, she takes a look to the left, and realizes that she has no room to go in to the highway and has to force her self to the shoulder and into the rays, almost crashing into the trees.How can she be so careless? What kind of person puts a baby and them self in that situati on? Mansfield, S. (2000, Mar. )† A report by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that driving while using the cell phone probably is hazardous, but wouldn't speculate how great the risk was, nor what other mitigating factors might be involve†. Now the numbers are staggering, Schroeder, P. , Meyers, M. & Stinkbug, L. 2013, April) the statistics for 2011 on cell phone and driving say it's estimated that at least 23% of all car accidents ACH year involves cell phone use – that's 1. 3 million crashes, 3,331 people were killed and 387,00 were injured, and in 2012, 24% of all car accidents each year involves cell phone use, 3,328 people were killed, and 421,00 were injured. With this type of statistics, and as we can see, on the rise every year, what are the law makers or the government waiting for, to establish a ban on cell phone use while driving.States have proposed bans on cell phone use while driving, for example: Excerpt by Mansfield, S. (20 00, Mar. ) in Arizona, a person shall not operate a motor vehicle on a Agway while using a cellular telephone, a computer, headphones or earphones, excluding hearing aids or other devices for improving the hearing of the person, and any other electronic device not installed by the manufacturer an that is not essential to the operation of a motor vehicle.In Colorado, â€Å"mobile communications device† means a cellular phone, citizen's band radio, or other device that enables a person in a motor vehicle to transmit and receive audio signals†¦ No person shall use mobile communication device while operating a motor vehicle unless the device is pacifically designated to allow hands-free operation. Like the states mention above, in 2000 there were seven more states, that propose bans on cell phones while driving and nothing has come out of this proposals.From the year 2000 to present, the numbers on this surveys and studies that are been conducted by this government entities and private companies are still on the rise, and drivers don't seem to want to change their habits while driving, and all the debates between state legislators don't seem to be getting them no were, and at least for the moment don't for see any hangs in the laws any time soon. What can we, as responsible adults, and drivers do to help minimize this hazards that are been created by irresponsible drivers everyday.How can we get this so called legislators, to change their minds and finally approve bans that we so desperately need to make our roads much safer than what they are now. Have we not seen enough? How many friends, family members, families, and children, or loved ones need to be killed or affected, before someone does something about this absent minded killer. Cell Phone Usage While Driving It's an even greater challenge if I don't have my eating glasses on I never wear them while driving. It takes two hands to type. My 20-something children can do it one handed, rarely looking at the keyboard. The light changes. I'm almost finished. â€Å"Hurry, Hurry,† I tell my self, pulling into the intersection while pressing â€Å"send†. Boone. L. (2009, August 10). Cell phone usage while driving should be banned completely in the US do to all hazards it creates on a daily basis on US roads.As a professional driver (truck driver) he sees it everyday, drivers with a cell phone in hand testing while driving, or on the phone talking to someone, completely unaware of their surroundings, swerving, slowing down, ten, twenty, and even thirty miles an hour from the posted speed limit, not thinking for one second the dangerous situation that they are putting themselves and others in.He doesn't understand how can drivers despite of all the advertising campaigns on television, radio, billboards, newspapers, and magazines, drivers still go a head and use that cell phone while driving. But one of the worst thing he sees on a daily basis, is the people that are supposed to be enforcing this laws (the cops) are the first to be breaking them. Just every cop he sees driving on the road is talking on the cell phone. Wright, like they say â€Å"lead by example†.Just the other day while driving on the highway as he was approaching an off ramp, he looks to the right and see a car with a young woman driving and a baby in the rear seat, she is on the phone, not looking to the left for one second to check the on coming traffic, and Just as she is at the point were the off ramp meets the highways, she takes a look to the left, and realizes that she has no room to go in to the highway and has to force her self to the shoulder and into the rays, almost crashing into the trees.How can she be so careless? What kind of person puts a baby and them self in that situati on? Mansfield, S. (2000, Mar. )† A report by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that driving while using the cell phone probably is hazardous, but wouldn't speculate how great the risk was, nor what other mitigating factors might be involve†. Now the numbers are staggering, Schroeder, P. , Meyers, M. & Stinkbug, L. 2013, April) the statistics for 2011 on cell phone and driving say it's estimated that at least 23% of all car accidents ACH year involves cell phone use – that's 1. 3 million crashes, 3,331 people were killed and 387,00 were injured, and in 2012, 24% of all car accidents each year involves cell phone use, 3,328 people were killed, and 421,00 were injured. With this type of statistics, and as we can see, on the rise every year, what are the law makers or the government waiting for, to establish a ban on cell phone use while driving.States have proposed bans on cell phone use while driving, for example: Excerpt by Mansfield, S. (20 00, Mar. ) in Arizona, a person shall not operate a motor vehicle on a Agway while using a cellular telephone, a computer, headphones or earphones, excluding hearing aids or other devices for improving the hearing of the person, and any other electronic device not installed by the manufacturer an that is not essential to the operation of a motor vehicle.In Colorado, â€Å"mobile communications device† means a cellular phone, citizen's band radio, or other device that enables a person in a motor vehicle to transmit and receive audio signals†¦ No person shall use mobile communication device while operating a motor vehicle unless the device is pacifically designated to allow hands-free operation. Like the states mention above, in 2000 there were seven more states, that propose bans on cell phones while driving and nothing has come out of this proposals.From the year 2000 to present, the numbers on this surveys and studies that are been conducted by this government entities and private companies are still on the rise, and drivers don't seem to want to change their habits while driving, and all the debates between state legislators don't seem to be getting them no were, and at least for the moment don't for see any hangs in the laws any time soon. What can we, as responsible adults, and drivers do to help minimize this hazards that are been created by irresponsible drivers everyday.How can we get this so called legislators, to change their minds and finally approve bans that we so desperately need to make our roads much safer than what they are now. Have we not seen enough? How many friends, family members, families, and children, or loved ones need to be killed or affected, before someone does something about this absent minded killer.