Texting and Driving Free Essays

In Citra, Florida, 13 year old, Margay Schee was hit by a semi-truck traveling at 60 miles per hour1 . The truck driver claimed to have not seen Mrs. Schee. We will write a custom essay sample on Texting and Driving or any similar topic only for you Order Now In Rudolph, Wisconsin, 58 year old, Julie Davis was killed instantly when she was hit while walking alongside a road with a friend1. Mrs. Davis was hit by a 19 year old going 70 miles per hour with no attempt at hitting the brakes1. Ashley Johnson of Asheville, North Carolina was 16 years old when she died from distracted driving1. She was driving to help tutor a student when she veered into another lane, crashing into an oncoming vehicle1. At the scene, her phone was found with a received text message at the time of the crash1. â€Å"Just in 2010, 3,092 people were killed in crashes [like the incidents above] involving a distracted driver†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Distracted driving has become the number one killer of Americans in the past few years, having alcohol related accidents drop to the number two slot. Though these two issues stack up differently, studies show that they are nearly the same thing. Studies done at the University of Utah show those drivers on mobile phones are actually more impaired than drivers at a . 8 Blood Alcohol Level. In New York in 1910, jurisdiction adopted laws against drunk driving and since then this issue has been heavily enforced. With this new form of distracted driving, which compares greatly to drunken driving, laws should be set and enforced. Not only should laws dealing with this issue be made and met, these laws should be heavily enforced until all drivers and passengers understand the r isks and consequences of such an act. Distracted driving can be broken down into three different types of distractions: visual, manual, and cognitive. Visual is the distraction that takes the driver’s eyes off the road. Manual is the distraction of taking the driver’s hands off of the wheel. Cognitive is the distraction that occurs when the driver starts thinking of things other than the road ahead. Texting while driving is the most alarming distraction because it involves all three types of distractions at once. With many diverse distractions falling under each of these three categories, Congressman Eliot L. Engel from New York eagerly joined the U. S. Department of Transportation’s â€Å"efforts in curbing distracted driving. The bill, H. R. 1772 Distracted Driving Prevention Act of 2011, â€Å"directs the Secretary of Transportation to make distracted driving prevention incentive grants for each fiscal year to states that enact laws that prohibit and establish fines for texting and/or handheld cellphone use while driving6. † This Act came about when the President, Barrack Obama, signed a law having t o deal with â€Å"Moving Ahead in the 21st century†. This action trickles down from the federal government and onto the state and local governments. The federal governments provide the grants, and in return, the state and local governments provide the enforcement of the federal guidelines prohibiting distracted driving. Representative Engel also agrees with Secretary Ray Lahood, United States Secretary of Transportation, when he says, â€Å"distracted driving has become a deadly epidemic6†. With an 11% increase in distracted driving deaths for the year of 2011, Representative Engel is accurate in agreeing that distracted driving is a deadly epidemic. â€Å"This grant program will provide approximately $17. million to states that have laws banning distracted driving in the fiscal year 2013†¦an additional $5 million to develop paid advertising to support state enforcement of laws against distracted driving2. † Engel and Lahood see these grants as large investments in the future through education on texting and driving. With the technology of smart phones and phones in general, Global Positioning Systems, advanced radios, and passengers, new drivers are not getting properly educated and disciplined on the consequences of distracted driving because these advancements are all they know when it comes time for them to drive. Lahood says, â€Å"This new grant program will provide states that have distracted driving laws with important resources to help save lives and prevent injuries2. † During the National Distracted Driving Summit, it was announced that remarkable statistics have shown baring texting and driving has raised positive outcome with more than 550 companies vowing to implement rules against distracted driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pilot programs in Hartford, Connecticut and Syracuse, New York indicate that enforcing restrictions on cell phone use is yielding positive results8. Also during this Summit, those who oppose this law were able to relay their thoughts. The overall effectiveness of anti-distracted driving laws were brought up. The number one disapprover of this Act, Adrian Lund, president of the Highway Loss Data Institute, says, after studies, â€Å"Texting bans haven’t reduced crashes at all†¦crashes have actually increased8. † Lahood fired back, calling the study â€Å"completely misleading† and that Lund’s research did not include all information8. Other than the few, Highway Loss Data Institute and The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, who do not approve of the distracted driving laws, the Act of 2011 has many strong supporters8. With celebrities such as the talk host Oprah Winfrey encouraging viewers to sign a document saying they will not text and drive, and the Jonas Brothers asking fans to join them in their pledge against the practice; the word is being spread about the dangers8. Though the publicity is able to reach a certain percentage of drivers; that percentage and the remaining percent should not be neglected and should be reached through other means of knowledge. With facts and persuasion, thirty states, the District of Columbia, and Guam have all banned texting and driving, along with eight states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands banning the use of any hand held devices. Law enforcement has been able to go through with these laws by defining driving, personal wireless communications, primary offense, public road, and texting: â€Å"‘Driving’ means operating a motor vehicle on a public road, including operation while temporarily stationary because of traffic. Personal Wireless Communications Device’ means a device through which personal wireless services are transmitted. ‘Texting’ means reading from or manually entering data into a personal wireless communications device, including doing so for the purpose of SMS texting, emailing, and instant messaging. ‘Primary Offense’ means an offense for which a law enforcement officer may stop a vehicle solely for the purpose of issuing a c itation in absence of evidence of another offense5. â€Å"‘Driving’ means operating a motor vehicle on a public road, including operation while temporarily stationary because of traffic. ‘Personal Wireless Communications Device’ means a device through which personal wireless services are transmitted. ‘Texting’ means reading from or manually entering data into a personal wireless communications device, including doing so for the purpose of SMS texting, emailing, and instant messaging. Primary Offense’ means an offense for which a law enforcement officer may stop a vehicle solely for the purpose of issuing a citation in absence of evidence of another offense5. † With these definitions laid out for all drivers, there leaves little room to argue the law. With rules and guidelines set for drivers, the states also have guidelines to follow in order to receive financial support for their individual pursuits to decrease distracted driving accidents. The major requirements within the long list of requirements are establishing a minimum fine for the first violation with increased fines as the number of violations increase, prohibition of youth cell phone use, prohibition of a driver younger than 18 from using personal wireless communication devices, and required distracted driving issues to be tested as a part of the State’s Driver’s License examination5. One controversy that has come with this Act is the question of how the government plans on paying for these grants; where will all this money come from when given out to states. With these grants coming out of taxpayer’s money, these grants have become an issue. Representative Black, Republican -Tennessee, led the opposition to the distracted driving grants, already approved by senators. Using the 10th amendment, she insists â€Å"the federal government should not be manipulating state law through taxpayer funded distracted driving grants10. † Representative Black explains to the House that what is best for one state might not be best for another state, therefore causing many of the problems in this plan. With this issue brought up, Rep. Black points out and highlights that distracted driving laws should just be left up to each individual state and not mandated from the federal government. During Representative Black’s speech to the House, she brought up many good points; such as all of the grant money coming from taxpayer’s money, but the overarching point of this act and these laws were not recognized. With matters such as drinking and driving or texting and driving, they will not be conquered without major enforcements. The federal government is trying to take this matter into their own hands out of the desire to stop distracted driving, increase the education on distracted driving, and to decrease the number of wrecks and deaths due to distracted driving per year. Representative Black makes the point about letting the states decide because laws vary state to state and even with these guidelines coming down from the federal government the states are still able to go about decreasing distracted driving in their own manner with the small list of guidelines given by the federal government. The federal government is not trying to control each state and local government but merely help get hard hitting issues under control, therefore granting money to do so. The majority of studies show that drivers as a whole understand that texting and driving is dangerous but without any more thought commit this act anyways. An online survey of 1,999 teens ages 16-19 found that 86% had driven while distracted even though 84% know it’s dangerous. Through the campaign â€Å"Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks. † Over thirty basic statistics are shown. A texting driver is twenty three times more likely to get into a crash than a non-texting driver says Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in 2009. In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in U. S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving11. With H. R. 1772 Distracted Driving Prevention Act of 2011, the grants developed will not only enforce discipline through citations and law enforcement, but will raise public awareness. This Prevention Act is needed for the education of current and upcoming drivers, recommitting citations, law enforcement, and the decrease in texting and driving, and the decrease in wrecks and deaths due to distracted driving. H. R. 1772 Distracted Driving Prevention Act of 2011 was introduced to the congressional committee in the 112th Congress on May 05, 2011. This bill’s description given to the congressional committee was to â€Å"amend titles 23 and 49 [which both deal with National Highway Traffic Safety], United States Code, to reduce injuries and deaths caused by cell phone use and texting while driving, and for other purposes. After many hearings led by Representative Eliot Engel, Democratic -New York, the bill and its supporters are waiting for it to be reported by the committee, passed to the House, then passed to the Senate, and finalized by the President’s signature12. According to govtrack. us, this bill has a zero percent chance of being enacted. The Pr evention Act is a re- introduction of H. R. 3994, Distracted Driving Prevention Act of 2009, brought up in the 111th Congress that had a negative three percent impact (-3%)12. With the sponsor of this bill being a member of the minority party, a negative two percent (-2%) adds into the likelihood of this bill being passed12. The only positive actualities of this bill and its sponsors is the bill’s cosponsors, Donna Christensen (Democratic – Virgin Islands) and Carolyn Maloney (Democratic – New York), who are also a member of the minority party, has a high leadership score, adding a positive three percent (+3)12. A key fact given by the legislation is that only four percent (4%) of all House of Representatives bills in 2009-2010 were actually enacted12. The U. S Department of Transportation has yet to be able to make distracted driving illegal on its own because the jurisdiction falls under each state. Even though nothing has been passed by Congress, many states have stepped up to pass tough laws against distracted driving. With optimistic thinking, Representative Engel still pushes forward and continues to campaign his hope for change on our highways and in our auto vehicles through Congress. A recent law was mandated in Fort Lee, New Jersey prohibiting pedestrians from texting. This law was highly ridiculed, but the local government’s thought process was â€Å"if we cannot stop drivers from texting, we better make sure that pedestrians do not text so they can keep their eyes peeled for reckless drivers. This concept seems outlandish, but without the support of the federal government through the Distracted Driving Prevention Act some places around the country cannot enforce such laws alone. If legislation approves this bill statistic will plummet tremendously leaving the highways, vehicles, and drivers in a safer environment when teenagers like Ashley Johnson are driving to tutor other young adults or elderly ladies like Mrs. Davis taking their daily walk. Distracted driving is common, tempting, and deadly and through H. R. 1772 Distracted Driving Prevention Act of 2011 lives can be changed, lives can be saved. How to cite Texting and Driving, Papers Texting and Driving Free Essays Driving a Thin Line I’d be lying if I said I never text while driving. But I recognize the dangers, and try to do it as little as possible. However, there are still incidents that occur. We will write a custom essay sample on Texting and Driving or any similar topic only for you Order Now One day, I was driving down Highway 6, passing Walmart, and received a text from my brother asking what time baseball practice was. I went to reply and took my focus off my driving. This immediately endangered myself, anyone else in the car, and everyone in the cars around me. While texting, I have no ability to respond to events as they occur around me on the road. Even if I may be able to text while driving and maintain control and not crash, if someone around was to do something dumb, my ability to react safely to that is severely diminished. For example, the other day I was driving home on Williams Trace, my radio blaring 94. 5 The Buzz, Erik in the passenger seat, when someone swerved to avoid debris on the road. I was able to react to this, and get out of the way, because I was focused solely on the road, with no distractions. Driving is always dangerous, because even if I drive perfectly, I could still get in a wreck because of the actions of others, over which I have no control. And by texting while driving the chances of this are greatly increased. That also assumes that when texting, I am also able to retain 100% of my normal driving faculties. This is completely false though. Even if I am able to text without looking at my phone, my mind is still distracted from an activity that requires my full attention. And if I do take my eyes off the road to text, I might as well be driving blind. My ability to conduct myself safely is almost completely gone at that point. There have been times when I’ve been looking at my phone texting, then looked up to find myself rapidly approaching stopped cars, and had to slam on the brakes. Every time so far I’ve been lucky, but that can only last so long. Eventually I won’t look up in time, and will slam into the back of those cars. Every time I pick up my phone, I’m putting lives on the line. Who knows who’ll be in that car I hit? It could be full of little kids on their way home from soccer practice, and I just potentially hit them. Texting while driving goes beyond just endangering myself on the road. Every time I pick up that phone, I’m potentially harming all of my passengers, plus all the cars around me. A lot of the time when I drive, my brother is in the passenger seat. So when I drive with him, its my responsibility to keep him safe. It goes beyond just making a stupid decision that affects myself, I’m making a stupid decision that affects my little brother. I’m putting his life on the line through my own foolishness and selfishness. The same holds true for anyone on the road with me. That grandmother driving to the store to pick up some groceries, or the little kid riding along with their parents to get some lunch, I’m personally putting their lives on the line when I text and drive. There is rarely any legitimate reason to text and drive. The vast majority of the texts I receive and send are not life or death situations that require my immediate attention, but when I answer that text, I put myself in a life or death situation. I’m also failing in the responsibility that I and every other person takes up when they get behind the wheel, to drive to the best of my abilities in order to keep myself and those around me safe. It would hurt nothing if I was to simply ignore my phone for the duration of the trip, then answer any messages I’ve received. So by texting while driving, I’m putting at risk the lives of all around me, plus my own, all so that can have conversation that could wait. How to cite Texting and Driving, Essay examples Texting and Driving Free Essays It has commercials, ads, and billboards all over the united States promoting not to text and drive â€Å"it can wait†, because it is very dangerous; not only for their life but others as well. This somewhat graphic commercial asserts that an ordinary person can take their eyes off the road and in an instance destroy his/her live or the lives of others, and does this effectively through graphic images, common text message subject matter, and a negative theme. The use of graphic Images are very apparent In this commercial. We will write a custom essay sample on Texting and Driving or any similar topic only for you Order Now This commercial appeals to their sense of compassion by having a very shocking end result. In the rhetorical appeal they are using ethos because they are showing what could actually happen. They choose to use very graphic real images, so people may actually listen and see what can happen that fast. The somewhat disturbing result helps people to see the real case scenario in hopes that maybe they can get the message across. It has a very emotional mood because no one wants to crash and possibly die from that mistake. This commercial Is very appealing because it works to show Just how quick things can happen. The first time someone sees this particular commercial ATT can remember make a vow to never ext and drive again. It shows that the text messages are coming through and the girl is reading and testing back then the crash happened. The rescue people knew she was testing and driving because they found her phone and text messages were still coming through and she crashed not long after she sent the text. It Is one thing to hear what â€Å"can† happen, but to actually see a real Life scenario on the TV screen did something to the viewers, and they believe this happens to too many when they see it. The commercial appeals to teenagers by showing a common theme in their conversations. The girl is testing her friend about a boy. She keeps looking down at her phone and back up at the road. The testing then suddenly becomes more Interesting to her, and she Is more wrapped up in the phone than she is the road. Then she does not make It to where she Is going because that text was more knows she is about to crash, but it is then too late to do anything about it. Waiting to check a phone can help save people from getting hurt or killed. Taking eyes off of the road for five seconds equals driving the length of a football field without looking at the road. Testing and driving is as bad as drinking and driving. Most people who are exiting and driving spend more time in the other lane than their own. The ad is not only for teenagers but it is for everyone. Parents are Just as bad as teenagers about testing and driving. Phones show be turned off while the vehicle is in motion and not back on till the vehicle stops. Negative themes are quite uncommon for commercials. Commercials usually try to promote the ads. In a rhetorical appeals, they use pathos because they are showing the emotional content. In this instance, it is very effective to teenagers. The commercial makes them actually believe that this could happen to them. ATT wants to use the worst possible scenario to make sure teenagers see the consequences that could come of their actions. Nobody wants to lose a love one because of this mistake, so that is why the commercial is promoting to not text and drive. Negative images are more realistic and make people actually see what can happen very quickly. Making the mistake to text while driving is not only putting one person’s life in danger but everyone who they meet on the road. When meeting a car on the same side of the road is never a good feeling and then seeing them on their phone. AT has decided against preaching the same boring message we may hear room our parents â€Å"stay off of that phone! † They have chosen a much more effective way to get the message across by using a drastic and emotional theme. As people can see, AT effectively uses a common text message conversation, a negative theme, and graphic images to get a very powerful message across. Since AT is so popular, people think it can potentially save more lives. It pulls at the viewer’s heart strings and shows Just how easily something like this can happen if they do not pay attention to the road. ATT is trying to get the message out that the text messages can wait. There is nothing more important to do or say while driving. How to cite Texting and Driving, Papers Texting and Driving Free Essays Texting and driving Today I will persuade you into thinking about why texting and driving is dangerous to yourself and others because the brain and visual fields becomes distracted resulting in automobile accidents, either injuries or fatalities. We all know someone who has texted while driving and has caused an accident. It’s a terrible and dangerous habit yet we all still do it. We will write a custom essay sample on Texting and Driving or any similar topic only for you Order Now Ask yourself one day why and maybe you’ll find your answer, but until then protest and don’t text while driving Texting while driving can be fatal and your body might end in a coffin or hospital, think about your family and how they would feel. You see the commercials and the TV shows of what happens to survivors and sometimes they would rather have passed away, but they’re alive to tell their story and help protest. Younger adults are more likely to do both of these dangerous activities than people in their forties would. Someone who might send an emotional text; example being â€Å"I’m breaking up with you†, while you’re driving could cause your mind to go somewhere else and make you not pay attention to the road. They say there are laws in fourteen states against texting and driving. Some of these penalties are significantly lower then it would be to drink and drive. I’ll even admit that when I’m driving and a red light shows up or when im at a stop sign, I’ll check my phone and respond to the messages quickly. While texting and driving it becomes harder to focus on your surroundings and your phone. In the car you have your radio playing, phone buzzing from your friends responding to the messages you sent them, and you’re trying to focus on the road. All of these tasks are a form of distraction. Other teens have done the same, but I do know some teens who are texting as soon as they receive a message, which is more of a distraction than it would be at a red light. It’s wrong no matter what, but yet we still do it. According to Distracted Driving Help 5,400 fatal crashes and 448,000 injuries are caused by texting while driving. In January of 2012, an eighteen year old student who attended a university was killed in a fatal car accident, because she was updating her Facebook status while operating her vehicle and going a speed of 75 miles per hour says Idaho state police. The true question is why was this eighteen year old on her Facebook when she was going so fast on a highway. Some things can wait till you’re at your destination or you could simply pull over, but that’s my personal opinion, Others could think differently. Drivers who text at the wheel also check their email, Facebook, Twitter, and some, even surf the web, which is another distracting thing. This situation is a growing problem. We all don’t care about the research and neither do we care about the statistics, it will only hit â€Å"home† when it has happened to someone we know or to us. There are other options instead of being a distracted driver. You can have a voice command options on your smart phone if the message becomes that important. You don’t have to respond, you could pull over and respond. The message can wait I have come to realize family and life is more important than a message. Keep that in your mind while you glance at your phone or g et behind the wheel. Is it really worth the cost of the car, cost of a ticket, or even the cost of a hospital bill. No should be the answer. How to cite Texting and Driving, Essay examples