Driver distraction can be defined as a diversion of the mental attention away from activities or skills needed for safe driving and completion of the activity. A distraction is a fact of having a person’s concentration disturbed by any external or internal stimuli. (Regan, 2007) When drivers are distracted, their attention is divided between the “primary tasks” of driving and “secondary non-driving tasks” such as conversation, radio listening, and technology use. These external stimuli causes the driver’s cognitive skills to be used to analyse both the road situation and the secondary task, resulting to the impairment of the driver’s situational consciousness, decision-making skills and driving performance. Driver distractions…
“Amanda Clark’s phone conversation came to an abrupt end when her Chevrolet Trailblazer rolled three times before landing on its roof. She’d run a stop sign and was broadsided by another driver. Metal caved in around her but the roof stayed intact and she survived with just scrapes and bruises” (Tracy). This story of Amanda Clark’s car accident caused by distracted driving is common among people. “In 2014, 3,179 people were killed, and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers (“Distracted Driving: Facts”).” In Idaho, between the years of 2010-2014, distracted driving caused 1,557 serious injury crashes and 207 fatal crashes. Two hundred twenty-three people were killed and 2,018 people were injured ("Distracted…
This article is another informative work on the dangers on distracted driving. This article, however, includes distractions from hands-free devices that allow one to have a phone conversation without holding a phone to his or her ear. A study showed that someone texting or having a conversation on a wireless headset drove as poorly as someone whose blood alcohol concentration was above the legal limits in Australia and Spain, where this was tested (0.5 grams per liter). The study also found that when the conversation over the headset was simple, the driver drove as someone under the influence of alcohol with a 0.4 g/L BAC. When the conversation was intense, the driver drove similar to someone with a BAC of 0.7, which is almost illegal in the United States. When texting, the study found someone drives similar to someone with a BAC of 1, which is illegal in every country mentioned.…
A personal injury attorney might hear this all the time. An innocent pedestrian goes out for a walk. They are minding their own business crossing the street or even walking on the side walk. The suffer an injury that is caused by a careless driver or defects on the sidewalk. Certainly, it appears even going for a stroll down a familiar street is risky business. Of course, a pedestrian that suffers an injury has serious questions on their mind. They might ask a personal injury attorney about their legal right to sue.…
Distracted driving is exactly what it sounds like. Distracted driving is driving while distracted. These distractions can range anywhere from eating to using a cell phone while driving- texting or calling, from loud music to having friends and family members in the car with you while you are driving. Almost anything can be a distraction as long as it takes your attention away from driving for anytime as short as five seconds. In fact, one study it said that eighty percent of all crashes and collisions and that at least sixty five percent of near crashes and collisions have to do with the driver being inattentive or distracted while behind the wheel. Three seconds may not seem like a very long at all, and it may not be…
How would you like being in a car driving then all of sudden you get in a crash and die. 4,of 5 teenagers aged 13 to 19 died in auto accidents,6,000 of those 4,000 are the results of distracted driving. Being a safe driver is important because it impacts the individual and the community.…
Recently in 2013, a new law has been passed making texting and driving illegal. This law was approved because of the mass amount of accidents occurring due to the operator of a vehicle texting while driving. I do not believe a Public Service Announcement about this topic will reduce the number of distracted driving related incidents. Other people believe this type of announcement will in fact reduce the number of distracted driving related accidents. Texting isn 't the only type of distracted driving. It can be anything from brushing your hair to talking to a passenger. Even the most common actions like adjusting the air conditioner or radio can distract someone driving.…
According to the article Cell Phone Ban Doesn’t Go Far Enough, about a quarter of people in the United States had to pay excessive money because of fines and penalties caused by distracted driving. Accidents, courts, injuries etc. cost loads of money which lower the economy rate. A lot of money is wasted towards this which can also cause poverty. This is how deep of an effect distracted driving can not only have on people, but on America’s economy as well. According to the article Keep Your Hands on the Wheel, one third of the distracted drivers in US had to pay money for someone else's car who they crashed into. With all the unnecessary wasted money paid toward distractions while driving, it is likely that America will soon have a financial…
Every day that people drive and do not get in an accident, think of how many other people do. Each day there are over a 1,000 people who are getting hurt by distracted while driving and 9 people die while trying to attempt it or just doing it (Halsey). Now that this century has more technology than ever before, some of these appliances are in our vehicles. People can now get distracted while texting, talking, trying to mess with the radio, trying to make a navigator work,and simply putting a disc in a player . With all of these distractions around us while driving, there is more of a chance to attempt this. Distracted driving is dangerous, so think about how a person can hurt themselves or even get killed by doing this. Every year there are…
The popularization of advanced technologies today leads to the distracted driving directly. As smartphones and other electronic devices are getting more popular nowadays, more and more people use their phones while driving. As Sarah Doody proofs the fact in her article, Incentivize People to Ignore Their Phones while Driving, there is a shocking number of people use their phones while driving, their eyes were off the road because they paid attention to the screens (Doody, 2016). Of course there are many other types of distractions such as eating and drinking, changing clothes or talking to passengers, but the rapid development and popularization of technologies are the biggest threats for drivers. Thus, in order to prevent distracted driving, the related departments of government should reinforce the laws and find programs to educate drivers about the dangers of distracted driving in depth.…
“Distracted drivers?” The thoughts of what appear in my mind when I hear the words “distracted drivers” is not of a good thought but that of a horrible situation to be in. Many drivers in today’s society have caused many road accidents due to their incapability of watching the road before them because they are distracted. There are many different reasons why drivers could be distracted, for example: cellphones, other accompanied people in the vehicle, intoxicated driving, or simply being distracted by outside objects.…
Distracted driving has always been a problem with our country since cars were invented but recently it has become an even bigger issue, now it is the leading cause of teen deaths. In our day and age cars have gotten faster and technology has gotten more advanced. We now have cell phones that can do multiple things and our cars also have their own technology. Cell phones pose the main threat towards distracted driving especially for teens. Since phones have been getting more advanced and being able to do more things on them, teens are especially susceptible to being on their phone while driving.…
In 2009, 5,474 people died and 448,000 people got injured from car accidents from being distracted while driving. The lives of innocent people are being taken every day due to a simple distraction. Car crashes are four times more common to take place while the driver is on their mobile device over any other causes.…
echnology is an ever present force in today’s modern society. Many people never leave home without a cell phone or forget to check the newest trending Twitter topics every hour. It is sad to say that some people spend more time on social media than with the people who matter most: friends and family. In “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, a robot arrests a man while he is on a walk because the man is going against the rest of society by not spending every waking moment glued to a television. This story plays a bigger role than Bradbury could have imagined because more and more people are spending more and more time online reading inaccurate articles or watching Netflix than interacting with real humans. Technology can poison the mind by limiting…
Look both ways before you cross the street, right? Utah state law states “A pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point… shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles on the roadway.” and “a pedestrian may not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.”¬¬a This is also known as the law against jaywalking. Each state has different legislature regarding this topic but the rule is generalized throughout the United States, don’t cross unless at a crosswalk. This law was created to protect pedestrians and drivers from causing unnecessary accidents. The underlying assumption here is that human naturally don’t care about anyone except for themselves. If they want to walk somewhere then they will just walk whenever and wherever they want to. Essentially, all humans are selfish and unaware of others around them or their needs. If not for this law, people would walk at random places and random times causing a traffic jam for any car trying to pass, or for a speeding car to hit a crossing pedestrian.…