Texting While Driving: A Dangerous Deviation While Driving

Texting While Driving: A Dangerous Deviation While Driving

Texting while driving is raising many concerns and will be banned. Americans have the responsibility to make the right choices and to be safe behind the wheel. Lawmakers are hearing many tragic stories about the deaths of people who text while drive, especially teenagers, which is finally getting their attention. A bill will be passed on July 1, which will hopefully stop people who text while behind the wheel. Texting While driving is a secondary offense. This means that police can only give you a ticket if the driver has another offense, like speeding or running through a red light. Although some adults feel they can use their cell phone while driving, but feel teens cannot, the government should ban all drivers from the use of cell phones behind the wheel because texting while driving is statistically worst than drunk driving, it puts your life and your passenger's life in danger, and it has caused many fatal accidents.

Background of the Problem

Texting while driving is becoming a huge problem in America. People behind the wheel, mostly teens, are using their cell phone while driving which is a dangerous deviation. The use of cell phones behind the wheel is causing more and more fatal accidents. Over the past ten years, cell phones have been becoming extremely popular and just recently became a problem behind the wheel. People feel they have to keep in

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contact with their friends twenty-four seven, even while driving, causing them to loose focus on the road increasing the chance of an accident. It seems that Americans are really getting addicted to their cell phones. Every time you receive a text message, you receive a rush, which is similar to the high a gambler feels when hitting the jackpot, according to John Ratey, a psychiatrist at Harvard University ("Texting While Driving: The New Drunk Driving" 2). "We may have gotten ourselves into an addiction that we might not be able to get out of," David Strayer said ("Texting While Driving: The New Drunk Driving" 2). Researchers say when a driver is distracted; it is called intention blindness, which means that the brain does not process what is physically in eyesight, such as a red light("Texting While Driving: The New Drunk Driving" 2). It took legislation ten years to pass a bill that made seat belts mandatory, which could mean it may take a while for legislation to make texting while driving illegal. People are comparing the texting while driving measures to the bill that made seat belt use mandatory.

Compared to Drunk Driving

Drivers who use cell phones while driving had the same reaction speed as someone legally intoxicated ("Texting While Driving: The New Drunk Driving" 1). People who talk on phones while driving are four times as likely to crash, but texting while driving is even more dangerous ("Texting While Driving: The New Drunk Driving" 1). When people talk on the phone while driving they direct their attention to sound, so the visual capacity of their brain decreases, says Steven Yantis ("Driving Us to Distraction" 1). When people