Should People Be Allowed to Use Mobile Phone While Driving?

Should People be allowed to Use Mobile Phone while Driving?
These days, mobile phone has become almost a basic necessity. We need a mobile phone everywhere for a faster and swifter communication with rest of the world. Unfortunately sometimes, because of the misuse of mobile phone especially while driving, even the lives of people are at risk. Using cell phones while driving distracts drivers from the road, and drivers need to use all their senses, including hearing, to drive. Since we can't use our sense of hearing for the purpose of driving when we are on our cell phones, many accidents can be caused. Although mobile phone makes our communication easy and fast, it should not be used while driving on the road. In my opinion, talking on a cell phone while driving is an extremely dangerous practice.
The idea of allowing the use of mobile phones while driving is relevant because the use of cellular phones has become a necessary part of our modern life. On the contrary, driving requires full attention on road.”Studies show that driving while talking on a cell phone is extremely dangerous and puts drivers at a four times greater risk of a crash" said president and CEO The National Safety Council Janet Froetscher. It causes miscommunication between driver and traffic control. Using mobile phone while driving can cause loss of concentration and as a result a single mistake while driving can lead to injury or death. However, most of all texting and driving should be banned because it can hurt themselves and other too. As technology has become more advanced, more distractions are available for drivers and became more dangerous. Now it's not just a simple conversation or a text message that can distract drivers: it's YouTube, Face book and the New York Times, all competing with the road for the driver’s attention.
It can also be said that, while the usage of mobile phone during driving is considered as dangerous, conversing with passengers during driving can be called as equally dangerous. Taking “hands free” on a cell phone can be considered the same as talking to a passenger while driving. On the other hand, it can be said that while, multitasking during driving seems to be normal, but in reality, multitasking can actually reduce the field of vision while driving. On top of that, another study demonstrates that talking to passengers, as opposed to talking on a cell phone, actually makes adult drivers safer, because passengers help alert drivers to potential driving risks. In addition, recent studies have shown that the use of communication devices can actually impair ones driving, as during communication we are required to give attention to the speaker. In the process of listening to the speaker, many people unconsciously, lose focus on their driving and hence their driving is worse than before. Since all cell phone conversation still required focused attention, hands free devices are no less distracting than hand held devices.
Another point in favor of the use of cell phones while driving could be that, responsible people who understand the risks involved in using mobile phones while driving and can actually handle this should be allowed to use mobile phones during driving. Even though people might argue about responsible people being allowed to use mobile phones while driving, studies have shown that drivers who are allowed to talk while driving tend to respond less quickly and are much more likely to cause car accidents. Furthermore, driving while using cell phones can be considered equivalent, to a certain extent, as drunk driving because people when drunk become unresponsive and while talking on their cell phones while driving they also become unresponsive, although not as much as drunk people but still enough to be called risky. During driving when people talk on their mobile phones, risk the lives of other people as well as they are distracted from the task at hand.
After considering all the above arguments I still strongly believe that, people should not be allowed to use mobile phones while driving. Driving while talking on a cell phone is distracting as it causes many accidents each year. It is a dangerous practice and needs to be outlawed because a lot of people who have gotten into car accidents were found to be on their cell phones when the accident happened. So in conclusion, I would like to state that, laws on preventing drivers to use cell phones while driving should be implemented where there is none and laws should be made stricter where there are such laws. (751 WORDS)