Phones and Driving

Drivers should NOT be able to use cell phones in any capacity while operating a vehicle. One out of Four car accidents in the United States are caused by texting and driving. Driving while using a cell phone is dangerous. My brother Corey lost his life last year in May while driving and texting. Being distracted and looking down at a cell phone while driving at any speed can cause an accident. I don't need statistics or percentages or fancy facts from websites to come to that conclusion. Driving and cell phone use leads to death, injury of yourself and others, injury to your vehicle, destroys your clean driving record, increases your insurance rates and can causes psychological issues. Driving and cell phone can lead to jail time if the person doing it kills another person.

I believe that even using hands free devices or using Bluetooth in your vehicle can be distracting and shouldn't be allowed. A conversation can distract you from paying attention to your surroundings. Driving while using a cellphone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%.

What is surprising is, that a survey done by AT&T shows that 97% of teens surveyed agreed that texting while driving is dangerous. It shocked me to read that 43% of them still do it anyway. This proves that stricter laws need to be put in place to stop this from happening.

Any death or injury caused by cell phone use while driving is too many deaths. Drivers should not be using them while operating a vehicle. Laws should be changed or made stricter to stop accidents caused by using cell phones while driving. Any upside to having a cell phone while driving is not worth the damage it may cause. Before cell phones people drove without them and suffered no problems. Cell phones should be banned from use by the driver of a vehicle.

Bibliography

Carnegie Mellon University, and Cmu "March 5: Carnegie Mellon Study Shows Just Listening

To Cell Phones Significantly Impairs Drivers." CMU, Mar. 2008, www. cmu. edu/news/archive/2008/March/march5_drivingwhilelistening. shtml

"11 Facts About Texting and Driving." DoSomething. org, www. dosomething. org/us/facts/11-

fact-about-texting-and-driving.

"Texting and Driving Accident Statistics - Distracted Driving." Edgarsnyder. com, www. edgarsnyder. com/car-accident/cause-of-accident/cell-phone-statistics. html