English 1020 Texting while driving

4/8/10

Texting while driving

We are all guilty for texting or talking on the phone while driving, but people fail to realize that they are putting not only their lives in danger but also pedestrians and everyone else’s who is driving on the road. Even though we all know the dangers of taking our eyes off the road, most of us mistakenly think we can juggle all of these difficult tasks while operating our vehicles without paying the price. We couldn’t be more wrong, having this type of mindset is what leads to fatal accidents, injuries and deaths. Texting or operating a phone while driving has gained a national and international popularity spread, especially among teenagers. Teens aren't the only ones texting; adults are guilty of checking their email, tweeting, updating their Face Book, and setting appointments on their blackberry’s or iPhone's. These actions have lead to dangerous and reckless driving behavior. It has gotten to the point that multiple cities have already banned texting while driving, more and more countries and states have taken aggressive action towards people who text while they are activating a motor vehicle. Texting while driving is a dangerous practice because your reaction time decreases by a sufficient number, it’s more dangerous than drinking while driving, it is a sign of reckless driving, and it also is a distraction that will cause a great deal of critical accidents. Understanding the fundamentals of these mishaps and admitting to being guilty of this law allows me to really touch base on why texting while driving is so crucial and dangerous.

Texting while driving is soon to be outlawed in certain states; this is a significant decision because it will encourage teens and adults to be more responsible while operating a vehicle on the road. Even though we all believe we can multitask while steering a wheel, we still unsuccessful comprehend that this is a major distraction. Texting while driving has lead to a drastic increase of a distraction while behind the wheel. A server train collision in 2008 ended up killing twenty five passengers because the engineer was text messaging; this is a great example of a distraction while operating a vehicle. Robert Martin Sanchez was blamed for the worst U.S. train crash in fifteen years all because he choose to put texting before the lives of his passengers. On September 12 in Chatsworth, California, forty six year old Robert Sanchez was operating a Metro link commuter train; he skipped a red light and collided into a Union Pacific freight train. It was said that his cell phone records showed that he received a text message at 4:21:03 p.m. and sent one at 4:22:01 p.m. The collision occurred exactly at 4:22:23 p.m. according to Union Pacific train’s onboard recorder. He received seven and sent five text messages between 3:00 p.m. and the time of the accident. This tells you even the least amount of text messages received and sent lead to an increase distraction and can cause the most tragic train crash since the 20th century. Robert decided that texting while he conducted the train was more important, and in the end he ended up risking his life and was eventually pronounced dead on the scene. As adults and even teens responsibility needs to be taken into action, we don’t realize who we are truly putting in danger when we continue to text while we drive.

Being able to drive a vehicle is a privilege that many take for granite. People destroy their privileges by texting while driving and drinking while driving. Driving while texting has greater impact on safety than driving drunk and a more profound effect on reaction times than drivers realize, researchers have proven this in a new road test. In 2009 an experiment with “Car and Driver” (an American automotive magazine), took two separate tests set up on a deserted air strip, one with 22 year old Jordan Brown, a Car and Driver intern, the other with the magazine's 37 year old editor in chief, Eddie Alterman. “Intern Jordan Brown's baseline reaction time at 70 mph, his baseline reaction was 0.39 second, while reading it was 0.50, texting was 0.48, and drinking was 0.50. Looking at Jordan's slowest reaction time at 70 mph, a vehicle travels 103 feet every second, and Brown's worst reaction time while reading at that speed put him about 30 feet (31 while typing) farther down the road versus 15 feet while drunk. Magazine editor Eddie Alterman was reading a text and driving at 70 mph, his average baseline reaction time while reading a text was 0.35 second longer than his base performance of 0.56 second, and typing a text it added 0.68 second to his reaction time. But his intoxicated number increased only 0.04 second over the base score, to a total of 0.60 seconds.” (http://jalopnik.com/5302414/drunk-driving-safer-than-texting-while-driving) This shows the dangerous outcome of how bad texting while driving really is, people guilty of this practice don’t realize what lives they are putting in jeopardy. This practice has become more dangerous than being intoxicated at the wheel, this fact needs to change people’s viewpoints and responsibilities on this subject.

People really tune into texting while driving being more deadly than drinking while driving. This is because the American public correctly views drinking and driving as a dangerous subject matter, but when it comes to texting and driving many Americans are not fazed. One of the reasons texting while driving doesn’t faze people is because many individuals have done it and still do it, even though it's banned in 14 states. It is ridiculous that it will continue and it will take more accidents and more deaths to change the outcome and people’s attitudes.

People bump into others at the mall, they trip over a bag at the airport, and they run into a shopping cart in the market, but worst of all people slam into one another with their cars and cause tragic car accidents. These causes are all from texting, people fail to realize that multitasking with your phone at the wheel can be very dangerous and can lead to reckless driving. Texting while driving is already illegal under reckless driving statutes. Reckless driving is a class two misdemeanor, which sentences up to four months in jail and a $750 fine. Texting while operating a motor vehicle is considered reckless driving because drivers aren’t aware of their surrounds, individuals are endangering the lives of others, they are not focused on what is happening in front of them, and they are also likely to smash into a pole, car, or pedestrian. This is a danger to our society by far; teens and adults need to take operating a vehicle as a responsibility not as a toy. Many people will continue texting and not take into consideration that each and every day someone is getting into a car accident because of reckless driving, the cause of all of this commotion is texting at the wheel. This type of mindset is what makes a reckless driver.

More and more cities are barring drivers from sending a text message, checking their e-mail or updating their Face book status while driving and they are also beginning to ban texting while driving. Cities are trying to block citizens from driving while they text because they are fatal distractions. Drivers can’t be pulled over entirely for a texting violation. Police officers would have to suspect a driver of breaking another law. Officers can however enforce banning cell phones at the wheel as a major crime for those less than 19 years old. Too many people have become too comfortable to checking e-mail or sending a text while behind the wheel, even though it's as dangerous as drinking and driving. This is the main cause of numerous stories of teens and even adults dying in accidents.