Phones and Driving: The Dangerous of Both at Once

Driving is something that most people in the world do. It is important to a person's daily life, because driving is used to go from place to place. Phones are also something that most people have, and deem important. Phones can be used to browse the internet, and to be able to contact someone in an emergency. However using the phone while driving is not only a bad thing, it is dangerous.

Using the phone while driving is usually referred to as Distracted Driving. Distracted driving is dangerous for not only the driver, but also those around the driver. The average amount of time it takes for a person to read a text is around five seconds. If the driver is traveling at 55mph (88.5kmh), which is standard highway speed, in those five seconds the vehicle had covered a distance of 403ft (123 meters). The situation on the road could easily have changed in that distance which could cause an accident. According to the CDC, out of the 2,443,000 vehicle injuries that occurred in 2015, 391,000 of the injuries are due to Distracted Driving. Then out of the 35,092 vehicle deaths that occurred in 2015, 3,447 of the deaths are due to Distracted Driving (Distracted Driving | Motor Vehicle Safety | CDC Injury Center). Although these may not seem very large in terms of percentage these numbers are still quite big.

Despite both driving and phones being very important parts of a person's life using a phone while driving is a very dangerous thing. Due to how dangerous it is to use a phone while driving people should not be looking at their phone at all while driving, but hands off things such as Bluetooth connection that were set up before the vehicle is in motion should be allowed since a person is not taking their eyes off the road. Distracted Driving is an incredibly dangerous thing to do, and that is why using the phone while driving should not be allowed.

Works Cited

"Distracted Driving | Motor Vehicle Safety | CDC Injury Center." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www. cdc. gov/motorvehiclesafety/distracted_driving/index. html