Texting and driving should it be illegal

Sometimes you have to be alert of your surroundings. Teenagers are the main targets when it comes to this matter. While driving, adults and teenagers cannot resist the urge to pick up their cell phone and send a text or respond to one.

Car crashes are four times more common to take place while the driver is on their mobile device over any other causes. Cell phone use while driving is basically the same as driving after drinking alcohol, both cause the driver to have poor speed maintenance, poor lane control, slow starts at signaled intersections, abrupt lane changes, sudden stops and cutting off other drivers. Driving while talking on a cell phone increases your risk of an accident from percent same as driving drunk. Several states have attempted to pass laws to ban cell phone use while driving.

Cab drivers in New York are not allowed to use cell phones while driving. On the other hand, those who appose banning cell phones while driving argue that when states issue drivers licenses, an individual motorist has been given the chance to be both responsible and capable of making decisions behind the wheel.

The cell phone however, while convenient, will often lead to many hazardous accidents and sometimes deaths. While most will admit using a cell phone while driving is dangerous, many still do it. Distracted driving as a whole should been seen as a violent act of selfishness closely related to murderous intent.

David L. Good Essays. Open Document. Distracted Driving Cellphone Use. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cellphones while driving. All cellphone ban: No state bans all cellphone use for all drivers, but 36 states and D. Text messaging ban: 48 states, D. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers. You think to yourself, Should I do it? Should I text, or email, or jot down my notes while driving? Of course, I first jotted down my ideas in my phone—after pulling over into an empty parking space.

Most crashes are caused by people like you and me who think they can pay attention to the road and do something else at the same time.

Everyone knows that texting and driving is a terrible idea, but few understand why. Taking your eyes off the road has obvious disadvantages. But the real story behind the danger of texting while driving is far more interesting: It degrades our attention.

Over 90 percent of crashes are the fault of drivers. When you are engaged in conversation, be it on a call or texting—or even with someone else in the car—your attention is divided. And as fallible humans, we only have so much attention to spare. In fact, while there are very few magic numbers in life, there is a magic number associated with how many things we can attend to at once. In , cognitive psychologist George Miller found that people can hold about seven chunks of information, give or take two or, five to nine , in their minds at one time.

In all the driving-while-talking research, there is little to no difference in impairment between drivers using hands-free and hand-held phones. In , before texting while driving had invaded the public sphere and the BlackBerry had become the smartest phone around, two researchers linked our limited attention to driving impairment. We are seeing, but not perceiving. A study using a driving simulator found that participants who engaged in hands-free phone conversations took longer to react to a car slowing down ahead of them compared to those who drove without conversation.

This driving-while-talking effect was exacerbated when there was high traffic density, because there were more attentional demands on the driver. Situations like these are understandable and often unavoidable. They cannot, however, be allowed to distract you from the road.

An avoidable auto accident is the last thing you need when you have other stressful situations in your life.

If you are expecting an urgent call, text, or email, simply pull over before you check your phone. Choose a route where you can pull over quickly if you get an urgent message. Avoid the highways. You might not have a shoulder to pull onto and, even if you do, these are very dangerous.

Many accidents are caused by highway drivers who did not properly avoid someone in the emergency lane. Your phone records will show whether you were receiving or sending phone calls or text messages in the minutes before the crash. Your private messages, phone number, and account information could all become public records if introduced in a lawsuit.

The lack of privacy is just one more consequence of distracted driving that you should avoid. But this does not change the cold hard fact that you are 23 times more likely to be involved in an auto accident if you read or send text messages while driving. Nicolette Nicoletti , Auto Accident Attorney. The mistaken belief that you will somehow beat the odds is a dangerous level of overconfidence that has fatal consequences for too many drivers.

So what can be done to combat overconfidence? First, all drivers need to understand the dangers of texting and drivers. Research suggests that far too many drivers still believe texting while driving is not that dangerous or is not that big of a problem. Help those around you understand how important it is not to text and drive. Here, too, set a good example, even if nobody else is in the car with you.

Let your loved ones know that you do not feel safe when they are texting and driving.