Distracted Driving
Drivers Using Cell Phones
Your cell phone is killing people. Imagine for a moment you are on your way to your place of work. Traffic is terrible, so you grab your cell phone to text your co-worker or boss to let them know that you will be late for work. All you can remember later is the brief glimpse down to your cell phone while using your other hand to steer the car blindly. The trip to the hospital was short; you had your seat belt on and walked away with only minor injuries. The vehicle you ran into, on the other hand, fared much worse. A three-year-old boy was nearly killed in the collision. No, this would never happen to you. You are a perfect driver and have never had a problem driving while using your cell phone. The 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths annually were just unlucky, perhaps (Christensen par 3). How could this accident have been prevented? Laws concerning distracted drivers need to be enforced and education reinforced before more accidents occur.
A driver that also thought he would be fine using his cell phone had, in fact, nearly killed a three-year-old boy named Griffin from Bastrop, Texas. The impact was so severe that it fractured the three-year-old’s skull in several places, requiring him to undergo emergency neuro and facial surgeries (Stolp 1). What would happen if Griffin was your son? What kind of emotional distress would you be going through while you waited to hear if your little boy was going to survive or not? Would he have to live with life altering effects afterwards? This is not the only accident resulting from a driver using their cell phone. How many of your loved ones are driving distracted or sitting in the passenger side of the car while the driver is texting or talking on their cell phone? How many times have you been the distracted driver?
A study performed by the University of Utah’s Psychology Department in 2003 compared drivers under the influence of alcohol to drivers using cell phones (both talking and texting).
Your cell phone is killing people. Imagine for a moment you are on your way to your place of work. Traffic is terrible, so you grab your cell phone to text your co-worker or boss to let them know that you will be late for work. All you can remember later is the brief glimpse down to your cell phone while using your other hand to steer the car blindly. The trip to the hospital was short; you had your seat belt on and walked away with only minor injuries. The vehicle you ran into, on the other hand, fared much worse. A three-year-old boy was nearly killed in the collision. No, this would never happen to you. You are a perfect driver and have never had a problem driving while using your cell phone. The 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths annually were just unlucky, perhaps (Christensen par 3). How could this accident have been prevented? Laws concerning distracted drivers need to be enforced and education reinforced before more accidents occur.
A driver that also thought he would be fine using his cell phone had, in fact, nearly killed a three-year-old boy named Griffin from Bastrop, Texas. The impact was so severe that it fractured the three-year-old’s skull in several places, requiring him to undergo emergency neuro and facial surgeries (Stolp 1). What would happen if Griffin was your son? What kind of emotional distress would you be going through while you waited to hear if your little boy was going to survive or not? Would he have to live with life altering effects afterwards? This is not the only accident resulting from a driver using their cell phone. How many of your loved ones are driving distracted or sitting in the passenger side of the car while the driver is texting or talking on their cell phone? How many times have you been the distracted driver?
A study performed by the University of Utah’s Psychology Department in 2003 compared drivers under the influence of alcohol to drivers using cell phones (both talking and texting).