Distracted Driving: Dangers Of Text Messaging While Driving

Too many people are dying on the streets because of distracted driving. Cars first became popular in the United States around 1990, and similarly, numbers of deaths began to rise, and fast. Data has recently shown that if one is using a handheld device while driving, they are four times more likely to get into a fatal car accident. Clearly, this is an enormous difference between when we use our phones and when we don’t. Consequently, people don’t normally think twice when picking up their phones while operating a vehicle. Since phones are used in our everyday lives, people find it harder and harder to comprehend the idea that they are dangerous and sometimes prevent safety. Thus making it important for people to understand when and when not to use them. It has been recently discovered that texting while driving is even more dangerous than while driving under the influence. Car Insurance net, suggests that “distracted driving causes 35% more collisions than driving under the influence.” Even though it is illegal, people still seem to do both. This is clearly absurd because we could be preventing those collisions, by simply focusing on the road and not our phones. A recent survey sent out from Teen Safe presents that 69% of drivers admitted to using their cellphone within the previous month. Without a doubt, more than half of the drivers surveyed were putting themselves and others in danger by interacting with their phones. As active drivers, staying focused on the road should be our number one priority. It is uncommonly known that we are able to divert our attention from the road for a maximum of three seconds while driving. See, this would be great if we could send a text message in two seconds, but on average it takes a minimum of five seconds to write and send a text. If we were to send a text, in those two seconds that attention is diverted, one could get seriously hurt. Which results in more deaths. For instance, did you know that a teenager using a phone has the same-probably even slower-reaction time as a 70 year-old? This is astonishing since we seem to think otherwise. We never really know how dangerous it could be until it is put into our perspective.

You thought texting and driving was dangerous, but did you know that hands free devices are just as bad? It has been experimented multiple times and proven that hands free devices are not a solution to prevent distracted driving. A common misconception that most people have is that texting while driving is safe, as long as one is using a hands free device. This is definitely not true. Dr. Graham Hole, a psychologist, performed an experiment in which drivers were placed into driving stimulations and were later presented with a variety of unexpected hazardous obstacles. Half of the group was instructed to send text messages using a hands free device while driving, and the other group was advised to pay attention to the road ahead of them. The goal was to see if hands free devices would also cause distraction while driving. With the help of eye tracking throughout the experiment, it was concluded that a person will react 0.93 of a second slower than those who weren’t using a hands free device (Independent). Sometimes, it was found that the driver will look at the hazard but not react to it, causing more chances of ending up in a collision. The experiment reveals that using a hands free device does not make us safer drivers, on the contrary it supports the concept that they drive us into danger. In a similar experiment conducted in the UK, it was found that conversations through the phone, even if they were read/heard through hands free devices, that required extra thought or concentration “diminished drivers extent of visual scanning, speed control, detection of warning flashers and decision making ability.” (Impactful Distractions) Thus demonstrates hands free devices also cause distracted driving. Because driving diminishes the ability to scan visually, we no longer are in control behind the wheel, and since it decreases our ability to make decisions, we have a slower reaction time. Who knows, maybe the one time one uses a phone they collide with another person, or car, or family.

We drive everyday, we spend a majority of our life in our car getting from one place to the next so what makes it so difficult to just leave our phones aside, and drive safely? As crazy as it is to say, we have developed an addiction to our smartphone devices.