Phones & Driving

Today people are so easily distracted, so many people get in wrecks because of it. Thousands of people are killed or injured in accidents because someone had to send one more text or take one more picture. Imagine if a loved one left there house to visit for supper, and the never arrived. You would be terrified, then you get a call to be told that they have been in an accident. Of course it was by a young man distracted by his cell phone. People should not be allowed to be on there at all, not for any reason.

There are three types of distractions manual, visual, and cognitive. Manual distraction is when your hands are off the wheel and not being used to drive safely, visual distraction is when your eyes are not on the road and are instead on your cell phone, last a cognitive distraction refers to taking your mind of driving and being more focused on your cell phone. Using a cell phone while driving uses all three types, which highly increases the chances of getting into an accident. "People are as impaired when they drive and talk on the cell phone as they are when they are intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit of 0.08%." ("Distracted Driving Facts")

If people are as distracted as a driver that is intoxicated while using a cell phone while driving is just as if not more dangerous on the road. Also, there are most likely more people on their cell phone while driving than people under the influence of alcohol on the road.

Not only are there problems with endangering other and yourself, there are also economic problems. "Economic losses from distracted driving could total $46 billion a year." ("Background on: Distracted driving").

"NHTSA released a study in May 2014 which focused on behavioral factors that contributed to 32,999 highway fatalities and 3.9 million injuries in the U.S. in 2010 the study found that those crashes cost $277 billion in economic losses and $594 billion in societal harm, for a total of $871 billion that year"

('Background on: Distracting driving"). Therefore, we are also losing billions of dollars a year due to distracting driving, Which could lead to are government increasing taxes to get that money back. Not only will it put our country in debt but maybe even people living here.

Finally, the laws for driving and being on your cell phone should be a lot more strick, and enforced stronger. We cannot have innocent people getting injured or killed every year because people are being distracted by their cell phones. Also, we can't let our country get in debt because of this either, no one wants taxes to be raised just to pay back all that money, instead let it be used for schools or other educational purposes. Last, Lets all put are put are phones away and keep the roads safe for the people of the future.

Work Cited

"Distracted Driving Facts." Envoca Design, 2016 https://www. enddd. org/the-facts-about-distracted-driving/

"Background on: Distracted driving." Insurance Information Institute https://www. iii. org/article/background-on-distracted-driving