Essays about Texting and Driving

The Texting and Driving Problem

Texting and driving is just as dangerous as driving under the influence of either drugs or

alcohol. Every day, people use their cell phones while driving to either text, navigate, or make phone calls, and think that they are not endangering their selves, or those around them‘

Television advertisements, newspapers, and even social media try to warn and inform the public that they shouldn’t text and drive; using statistics of death per year, and re—enacted short video clips of accidents to strike fear into the mind of the citizen. This fear is necessary. Too many people have just blocked these warnings out of their mind and ignore the fact that people are dying from this issue. In the article “Addressing the texting and driving epidemic: mortality salience priming effects on attitudes and behavioral intentions.” the National Safety Council estimates that, “At least 1‘6 million crashes each year (about 28% of all traffic accidents) and thousands of fatalities can be attributed to drivers who are distracted by cell phone use, with conservative estimates indicating that as many as 200,000 of these accidents are due specifically to texting-while-driving incidentst” Texting and driving should be more publicly addressed because a high percentage of accidents are caused by it,

Why Is It Dangerous

If a person is texting and driving then that means they are constantly taking their eyes off

the road for seconds at a time‘ If that person takes their eyes off the road for at least three

seconds then that means they could slowly be swerving into another lane without even knowing it By the time the driver looks up it will either be too late to correct the vehicle back to it’s lane and will result in a head on collision, or the driver will panic and over correct the car off the road in the article “The Risks Associated With Using a Mobile Phone By Young Drivers,” authors Marjana Cubranic-Dobrodolac, Svetlana Cicevic, Momcilo Dobrodolac and Milkica Nesic state that, “More than 230 million people use mobile phones in the US; moreover, between 50% and 73% of them use it while driving (NHTSA 1997} 

Epidemiological studies have shown that driver distractions are the main cause of 25% of all traffic accidents.” 25% of accidents are cause by driver distractions. Just a small distraction is all it takes for an accident to occur and lives to be taken. People are getting killed due to texting while driving because they are taking their eyes off the road forjust two seconds, not realizing that just two seconds is all it takes for them to swerve out of their lane and either hit a pedestrian or oncoming traffic.

So many accidents could be avoided and so many lives could be saved if only people

would just pull over into a parking lot to respond to a textt Being distracted while driving is a

serious issue and people need to understand that. Some would say that it is even safer to drive intoxicated rather than to text and drive In the article ”Don’t text, or drink, behind the wheel,” Romoser states that, “Texting while driving increases your chances of crashing more than 20 times over non distracted driving. Meanwhile, using a cell phone, which doesn’t involve as many glances away from the roadway, ups your chances of crashing by four to six times, which is comparable to intoxicated driving.“ Driving intoxicated is very dangerous too, but if texting and driving is statistically more dangerous than drunk driving, then you know it needs to be stopped,

Awareness of the Problem

People are aware that maybe they shouldn‘t use their phone while they drive, but they

think that somehow, they are the special one. Every person likes to believe they are the best

driver in the world and that they can text and drive and never possibly get into a car accident.

Yes, they have heard the stories of those who actually go into a fatal accident while texting and driving, but refrain from the idea that it could happen to them too. People sometimes like to ignore the facts and statistics and think they are the odd one out, but in reality, the ones who died from texting and driving thought the exact same thing.

Conclusion

Texting and driving has become and big phenomenon in America today. Its consequences

 have cost the lives of thousands to the point where it is considered more dangerous than drunk driving. People try to ignore the statistics and continue to text and drive, but the reality is they are endangering themselves and those around them. People need to realize the danger they put themselves in every time the look down at their phone and take their eyes off the road, They need to know that they aren’t special because it’s only a matter of time until one day they lose control of the vehicle. The texting can wait.