Cell Phone Use While Driving

Cell phones have grown into a significant part of people's day-to-day lives. Phones are primarily hand-held, which when used while driving is the cause of both minor and major road accidents. Given the importance of cell phones in people's lives, it is not practical to completely ban their use, but it makes more sense to identify safer ways to use the cellphone while driving. Numerous technologies have been developed with the purpose to make driving while using cell phones much safer like virtual assistance, speech-to-text software, and Bluetooth headsets. Practicality dictates that rules and regulations have to be designed to address hands-free cell phone. These laws will encourage safe practices, especially where fines and jail times are the consequence of breaching said laws (White, Eiser, and Harris 323). Drivers should be able to use their cell phones while driving only when hands-free, at appropriate times, and by the law.

The use of cell phones, either hand-held or hands-free, causes distractions and is dangerous to the people in the car and pedestrians. Drivers are encouraged to avoid all use of their mobile devices while on the road to ensure they are focused on driving. Nonetheless, altogether banning the use of cell phones is not helpful since phones have become a part of life. Therefore, it makes sense to identify safer ways to use cell phones while driving that do not endanger people (White, Eiser, and Harris 330). A study conducted by researchers concluded that the use of hands-free cell phone tech minimizes the time spent on the manual tasks in cell phones, particularly when compared to hand-held cell phones. Also, despite these facts, drivers are still likely to use handheld phones even though there is a safer alternative (Soccolich et al. 26).

The most effective hands-free device is the Bluetooth headset, which helps the driver answer the phone without handling it or fiddling with dials. The driver has to use the headset to both speak and listen. Furthermore, voice activation should be enabled to eliminate the need to touch the phone buttons completely. One of the best strategies, when a driver has to talk to someone, is to park the car, make the call, and switch to the Bluetooth headset, which eliminates the need to touch any controls when driving. Also, drivers can use virtual assistant software to make calls such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant (Hoy 82). When it comes to texting while driving, drivers are advised not to since it distracts from the task and can cause fatal accidents. Luckily, there are speech-to-text technologies on most smartphones that eliminate the need to hold one's phone while driving.

In conclusion, any distractions are a hazard to safe driving, including the use of both hand-held and hands-free cell phones. An appropriate solution is to identify ways in which drivers can drive while using their cellphones without unnecessarily endangering themselves or other pedestrians. Consequently, laws have to focus more on better ways to allow the use of mobile phones rather than altogether banning the use of phones while driving. Cell phones have become a significant part of people's day-to-day lives. All things revolves around staying connected via these devices. Therefore, drivers should be able to use their cell phones while driving only when hands-free and at appropriate times.

Works Cited

Hoy, Matthew B. "Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and more: An introduction to voice assistants." Medical reference services quarterly 37.1 (2018): 81-88.

Soccolich, Susan A., et al. "Comparing handheld and hands-free cell phone usage behaviors while driving." Traffic injury prevention 15. sup1 (2014): S21-S26.

White, Mathew P., J. Richard Eiser, and Peter R. Harris. "Risk perceptions of mobile phone use while driving." Risk Analysis: An International Journal 24.2 (2004): 323-334.

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