Essay On Drinking And Driving

Cellular phones, for most people today, are a necessity in our lives. People take their phones everywhere they go. These days, phones have gotten even more complex and we use them as a means for communication by voice, text, sound, and video. Because cell phones are considered such a necessity by many people today, the issue has risen regarding the use of phones while driving. These days cell phone use while driving is being compared to driving while being drunk. There are good reasons why people have made it a big issue today, but cell phone use while driving is not like drunk driving. There are big differences between the two, and this belief should not be used as a basis for prohibiting cell phone use while driving. It is obvious by
common sense and by actual studies, that talking on the cell phone while driving is a distraction to the driver's complete attention of the road and surroundings. This is where the big difference of drunk driving and talking on the phone is most relevant. Talking while on the phone is an avoidable distraction. Drunk driving is not a distraction but rather a situation that impairs a person's judgment because it slows down your brain which then effects your concentration and coordination (Wart, 2006). With alcohol, the driving ability to steer your car while responding to changes in traffic can be impaired with even small amounts of alcohol in your system (Wart, 2006). It is known that alcohol is considered a depressant which explains why it effects concentration and coordination and also why people experience a feeling of letting go and relaxing (Brown University, 2005). This type of feeling is not a safe situation while driving, because a relaxed feeling may show through the driver's performance on the road. Once a drunk driver gets on the road, the danger does not go away because this impairment is internal, and cannot just go away at specific times. Talking on the phone is something which does distract, but does not impair the driver to where one could not stop talking or put one on hold in a time at a specific time. Just as there is a higher risk of accidents with new inexperienced drivers on the road, is there a higher risk of people talking on the phone.
Young drivers are more accident prone because they have not had as much experience as other drivers. This is not saying that people who have been driving longer are always better drivers, but with practice people get better at what they are doing. In a study conducted by researchers at Miami University in Ohio, it was found that some are just clearly better at multitasking than others and also that signs of impairment may diminish with practice (Consumer Reports, 2006). This basically means that the risk varies from each individual because some people are better at doing more than one thing at once, and some people may experience less of a distraction while talking on the phone if it is a regular habit. It is not sensible to say some people can drive drunk and multitask better than others because alcohol directly affects one internally in the body. From interaction with people, some claim to still be able to maintain focus and coordination while driving and being drunk but this claim is not based on actual studies so that most likely is more of an issue of luck and
chance. This is not to say that cell phone use does not impair driving, but rather that the distraction that comes from talking on the cell phone is comparable to that of many other distractions a driver faces from day to day. There have been a large deal of studies done on cell phone use while driving, and many studies on those studies have also been performed to interpret the problems with the studies performed. Many studies contradict each other, but according to the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, there are many other distractions which have a bigger effect on a driver's performance including: outside distractions, the radio and any other car controls, and other car occupants (Ko, 2002). Out of eleven distractions that were studied, using or dialing on the cell phone was the 8th distraction on the list accounting for 1.5% of what distracts drivers most frequently. Because there are so many other distractions which are just as distracting, if not more, there is no possible way to compare cell phone use to drunk driving. If cellular phones are this much of a problem, then radios and clear windows, and occupants in the car with you are very much a problem too. To prohibit cell phone use because it is a distraction would be like prohibiting radios and windows and passengers in cars today (Ko, 2002). In general, distractions will always be there for drivers and some are avoidable while some are not. Cell phone use should not be a regular habit, thus leading to one less distraction for a driver. On the other hand, under no circumstance should drunk driving occur, and there are no positive results from driving intoxicated. Prohibiting cell phone use on the basis that it is like drunk driving just because some accidents have resulted from it would be a pointless argument and would be a useless case to actually affect many drivers today. On top of that, it would be an even more difficult task in trying to enforce any laws prohibiting cellular phone use while driving. People rather need to use common sense or judgment in such situations and decide if it is actually necessary to be on the phone at that instance, on the road. The use of cellular phones to text while driving is an obvious distraction because it completely takes the driver's eyes off the road, just as changing something on the radio or instrument panel, or looking at a passenger while talking would do. This distraction should be avoided as much as possible because it takes one's eyes off the road, something talking on the phone does not always do.