Distracted Driving

Distracted Driving If you had the chance to save a life, wouldn’t you take it? If stopping one action would give you a 28.3 times more likely to not crash wouldn’t you stop? This one simple action is using a cell phone while driving. Only 10 out of the 50 states ban cell phone usage while driving. Using a cell phone while driving is distracting, it has major consequences, and there aren’t really any “safe” ways to do it other than totally eliminating it. From the mere fact that driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%, we should realize it is not a safe idea. From texting, twitter, facebook, instagram, and millions of other apps the distractions are endless. Texting alone can cause enough damage. Texting takes your eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds, and at 55 mph, that’s like driving an entire football field blindfolded. Statistics say that teens who text while driving spend approximately 10% of their driving time outside the lane. Obviously none of this is safe or beneficial enough for you to not be able to wait to talk to someone. University of Utah psychology professor David Strayer said "If you put a 20-year-old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone". Using cell phones while driving immensely affects your reaction time, focus, and increases your chances of getting into an accident. Drivers who use handheld devices are 4 times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves than drivers that don’t use them and about every 24 seconds seconds there is a new crash involving drivers using cell phones and texting. People go into comas, become paralyzed, severely damage their bodies, and worse in car accidents all because of simple three word texts. Although several inventions such as BlueTooth, Magic Jack, and other in-car speakers enable you to call or text people hands-free, none of