Living While Distracted

Living While Distracted

According to the National Safety Council, reports show that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year. Regardless of what anyone has to say on trying to find a solution for the matter whether it’s texting and driving or using a cell phone and driving, doing any of those two mentioned earlier is dangerous and reckless. There are no arguments that will support texting and driving. Not even Voice-to-Text programs. The following paragraphs will be about the data that was collected on accidents and fatalities caused by cell phone use, the percentage of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by cell phones, and which states that has decided to take action against cell phone use.

First and foremost, there were about 3,477 people killed and 391,000 people that were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2015. No matter the age of the driver that’s behind the wheel, whether they’re on the younger end or the older end of the legal age spectrum, cell phone use behind the wheel can happen to anyone. Majority of the car crashes, due to cell phone use are caused by the ones on the younger end on the spectrum. In 2016, 263 teens, ages 15 to 19, were killed as a result of distracted drivers. The data collected on accidents and fatalities are said to be under reported due to the lack of drivers that are willing to admit to using their phones.

Although the number of accidents are under reported, about 21% of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by cell phones. 94% of drivers support a ban on texting and driving. Approximately 390,00 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. As mentioned earlier, there may be more accidents due to the low amount of drivers actually admitting they were on/ using their phones while driving. Of course the amount of accident that occur in a year would be significantly lower if people weren’t on their phones to begin with. However, this isn’t the case. As a result of distracted drivers, 1 out of 4 car accidents in the U.S. is caused by texting and driving.

Lastly, out of 43 states that have banned texting while driving, only 5 have primary enforcement of their laws. In 2007, Washington was the first state to pass a ban on texting while driving. In 47 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban texting for all drivers. No state completely ban all cell phones use for all drivers, but 38 states and D.C. ban all cell phone used by novice drivers and 20 states and D.C. prohibit it for school bus drivers. 12 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands have made it illegal to use handheld devices while driving.

In conclusion, texting and driving is completely dangerous. There are no arguments on the matter as to how to make texting and driving safe or okay. Using a cell phone while you’re driving is dangerous for, not only the driver, but the other drivers as well. Unfortunately, we are all living while distracted by our cell phones and other electronics. Hopefully, in the near future, all states will have a strict enforcement policy on cell phone use while driving.