The Risks and Consequences of Texting While Driving
No Texting and Driving
Nowadays teenagers and even adults are texting behind the wheel. Many states have laws that ban texting and driving, but even though people know it, texting and driving continues to rise. It is a major distraction and can cause an accident that leads to taking the life of the driver or innocent person. Now, how would that make someone feel if they took someone's life away just checking a message or sending a text back? There is a thing called waiting until one is safely parked and not distracted from the road. Once a person hears their phone, their hand instantly reaches for it and is making the decision right then and there the text message is more important than their life. People think, "Oh, it will only take me a minute or so to respond."
What people do not realize is it only takes a second for your life to be over. People are texting in school, at work and in reality anywhere. It isa habit and when people hear their phone; their first thought is to check their message even when driving. Drivers who are texting while on the road may be aware of the consequences, but it does not faze them. Drivers who text do not think they will be in any sort of accident. According to the Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, there has been research that states an average of 4.6 seconds of a driver's focus is taken away from the road while driving at 55 mph and in that time they travel the length of a football field (http://www.npr.org). If a person is texting, not only is their focus not on the road but also, not realizing if their in the right lane. Not only is texting dangerous, it is costly.
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The result of an accident while texting could be tickets, hospital bills, towing fees, car repairs and lawsuits. Jennifer Guevin says Virginia Tech Transportation Institute came up with people who send messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a crash than non-distracted drivers (http://news.cnet.com/). Something that is even more terrifying then driving a car and texting is truck drivers texting and driving. They take on the responsibility of driving large, heavy machines that are capable of killing many people and engaging in texting is even more dangerous. The US Department of Transportation states truck and bus drivers that violate these laws are fined ONLY $2,750 maximum (http://knowledgebase.findlaw.com). It really goes to show officials are not taking the consequences to the next level. The fines should be much higher and maybe even jail time.
The author Patti Neighmond states in 2008 alone, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows nearly 6,000 people were killed and more than 500,000 were injured in crashes involvi a distracted driver (http://www.npr.org/). Texting and driving should not be taken lightly when people put their life and those of others on the line. Last year, many states put down the hammer on drivers that text and drive. There are now only eleven states that have no laws while the rest have laws on the books. Fines for texting and driving vary from twenty to seven hundred and fifty dollars. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, people from Utah who violate this law face up to ninety days in jail (http://www.npr.org. The thought of going to jail scare the heck out of most people and with the law that Utah has, it may deter many who text and drive. In New Jersey, Pam Fischer who is a Division of Highway Traffic Safety says officers already write 10,000 tickets every month for those who break the law of texting. She also says there are a lot more people breaking the law than officers available to write tickets (http://www.npr.org).
Drivers need to be taken off the road if they cannot grasp the concept of the law of no texting and driving. The privilege of a person getting their license means taking on responsibility and that means not texting while driving. Texting and driving reduces driver reaction time and that increases a big risk to drivers. Drivers who send and receive text message increase their probability of a collision dramatically. According to a Car and Driver Magazine, an unimpaired driver takes .54 seconds to brake, a legally drunk driver adds four feet and a driver texting adds 70 feet (http://www.cnbc.com). This study shows how serious texting and driving is in our country and how big of a problem this is. A recent study by Christine Yager, a TTI researcher, states reaction time without texting activity is from one to two seconds and three to four seconds with texting activity (http://wwW.washingtonpost.com).
Drivers have less reaction time to avoid danger in roadways such as a car suddenly stopping or a child running Out into the street. People are not going to want the lifelong guilt of killing someone else just because of a text message, every driver must think twice before deciding to pick up the phone when it vibrates. As far as I know there are no counterarguments to texting and driving. I believe there is no good in texting and driving because your eyes are not on the road and your mind is concentrating on driving. Anything that distracts a driver is not worth putting lifes on the line. Things like changing the radio station, checking a text message, doing your make-up and more can all wait. Life is more important than being distracted while driving.
T believe there should be more impact put into the laws of no texting and driving. There have been Public Service Announcements made for texting and driving, some have gone to the extreme, but people need to know the reality of doing this. Also, AT&T has put out commercials of texting while driving and at the end it states the driver who has texted has either been killed or impaired. Any task that takes a driver's eyes off the road should be avoided at all cost and new drivers should not be allowed to use cell phone since they are more prone to use them and they are less experience behind the wheel. For some drivers it may take the path of the less fortune to figure out texting and driving is dangerous.
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The Risks and Consequences of Texting While Driving. (2023, Mar 13). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-risks-and-consequences-of-texting-while-driving/
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